Habitat for Humanity

Community service is important for many different reasons. However, that statement is a little too blunt to describe my personal expierence. I have had several previous voulunteer works, yet the one I did for my sociology class opened up my eyes in a new way. Sure I've voulenteered at some animal shelters and saw some pretty sad things, yet it didnt hit me the same was as when I went to go help out at habitat for humanity. Mabye I'm just more of a people person. Yet I will admit it was extreamly boring for the first few hours, and I was'nt too happy by the time I was painting my fourth wall after the first couple of hours. Around lunch time I was wiped after hours and hours of hard work. On top of that my shoulder was killing me from my water polo game the day before. Although something happend, the person whom was reciving the house stopped by and then it hit me, I was doing this work for someone less fortunate than I am. Then it became worth while, I saw a person who was equal to me, same DNA same genetics who needed a house. I realized that I was doing this for one of my own, that I now had a point in finishing as much as I could on the house. To provide for another human being made me open my eyes that poverty is so much closer than I ever really realized. Of course I always knew people like her existed, but it wasn't until I actually saw her that I developed some kind of attatchment to me. Its almost as if my duties as a human being decided to kick in and gave me a wake up call that shouted: "Stop sleeping, and go do your duty." I feel that if I would not have done this community service, that I would've not only failed sociology class, but more importantly I would have failed my duties as a social human being in the aspect of helping others.

Social Classes

In American Society there is the Pyrimidal structure. At the bottom there is all of the underclassmen who are just above the poverty line or below the poverty line. These people are the ones who put physical labor into building luxurios complexes or mansions. But if they put the effort into building these luxurious things then why dont they end up with their own creations? Its because the weatlh is so unequally distributed, and with little movement between classes there really is no chance that these underclassmen can imagine of them living a wealthy lifestyle. In the middle of the pyramid we have the working class. These are the people who live in suburbs in average size houses with dead end jobs. Eventhough they may work in the same place as the wealthy, their paychecks are nothing in comparison. And of course at the very tipy top of the pyramid we have the wealthy. We do not see much movement within this class because these people figure: why settle for anything less than the best?

However, there are some strayers who move social classes, my mother being one of them. Mostly growing up in a small town in Alaska, her family was very poor. And from coming out of high school, colllege opprotunities were bleak. She was classified as a part of the working class if not lower. Yet when she had me she decided to go back to college and get her degree. After college she married above her previous social class and moved up the social ladder. Changes like these though are not as common as they should be.

Random Acts of Kindness

This week in sociology were talking about what is normal and what isnt normal in our culture. For instance, this week we had to do what is reffered as a "random act of kindness" for someone we do not know, or we have to do something very unexpected for someone we do know. People dont usually bother with random acts of kindness for it is out of thier own schedule and they have to put in effort for the act. Plus it is seen as unusual to the person who is recieving the random act of kindness.These two factors discourage people usually from doing these random acts of kindness. What they forget to take into consideration though is the person who recieves the random act then feels good about themselves. It brings a sense to happiness to them and a sense of selflessness to the person who is giving the random act of kindness.

For example, my random act of kindness was to congradulate another team memeber on the opposing team we just played in a game.I could tell that she was very upset for they had just lost and that she had done her best. Yet when I complimented her on how well she did she smiled, and all of the sudden her mood changed from a negative one to a positive one. Making not only her feel good, but I as well for making her happy with a simple complement.

How do we view ourselves?

In Soc we talked about how the public generalizes genders. Yet we are taught from a very young age that girls are supposed to be thin, pretty, and flawless. We spend so much time only learning about the feminine generalizaton that the male generalization slips our minds. Sometimes we take it for granted that guys just come off more tough, or less talkitive than girls. Thats why I found the first movie about generalization of guys to be very intresting, and when I went home to observe my little brother to see if he fit the part, I found that everything the movie was telling me was true.
He tends to play with nerf guns all the time, which at first I thought meant nothing. Then I started to realize that everytime he was holding the guns or playing with them his language would become meaner, as well as his attidudes towards certain things or people. Yet when it was just me and him, his more feminine side started to show such as politness seeing that I was not a person who he had to prove himself to.

Day Care

In sociology this week we talked about socialization and how it affects young children. One of the reasearchers said that children that were placed in a daycare are more likely to be mean but smart. Thing that they forgot to include though was that it also stimulates the childs mind to be more social around others the same age as them. So ya they might have a mean side, but they also develop more of a tendency to be more open around others and be more social.
When I was little I was constantly put in a day care. Yet I have continuously made new friends in many different areas, and all of them say that I am generally a nice person. I find it funny that some of the nicest people I know come from day care childhood. Makes me question some of the views in the reading.

England Bar Fights

Universal signs are ways that we communicate with the world, even if we do not share the same dialect. Hand signals are one example of the universal signs we use in order to tell people what we want, or what we might not want. But in different countries the same hand gesture can mean different things. Like how in America we use the "peace sign" but throughout most of Europe, it means the same as the middle finger would in America. Yet people get so offended so quickly without thinking of where the person who is giving the hand gestures culture originates from. They are so used to their culture and their ways that it is almost expected of them to act offended, even if the person giving the hand gestures meant no harm in the first place.

My uncle went to England two summers ago and he decided to go to a bar with a few friends of his. The bar was very loud, so loud that the waitress couldn't even hear what my uncle and his friend wanted. So my uncle decided to resort to hand gestures. He held up two fingers, the "peace" sign, for two more drinks and an ok gesture,which in Europe means a very bad name to call someone. The waitress was furious and walked away, refusing to take anymore orders from my uncle and his friends. Later that evening the manager of the bar came up to my uncle and explaned the situation. But the fault really lies within both him and the waitress. It is partially his fault for he should have been more informed about England's culture before going there. Yet it is also the waitresses fault for not considering that my uncle was from America and not England.

5 year old vs. 18 year olds

It was funny seeing that book again, the one with all of the different cultures and their possesions. My Grandma has the same book that she used to show me all of the time. Back then to me it just looked like a lot of different people with a lot of different stuff in some very different places. Thing was though, I was right, thats all it really was. Yet, how is it that I wasnt suprised when I was around 5 years old, and the entire classroom was shocked at around 18 years old? I belive its because as people get older their minds get more complexed. As well as people grow so accustomed to the same routines within our own culture, that it closes our minds off from all of the different cultures around the world. Where as if you have a 5 year old who doesn't even know all the aspects within her own home, its more easy to convince them that the way of the world is different. Its like working with a blank canvass compared to working with a painted canvass. Which one is more easy to paint new ideas onto? As people grow older though, we are educated by people within our culture that teach us to follow a set of rules. Such as eating with a fork and knive compared to eating with chopsticks. Different people for different places have been taught in different ways. So the more they become educated, the stranger it is to them to see other people with a different lifestyle. Which is one of the reasons why I belive that a child's mind is one of the best kinds of minds. For their simplicity allows them to see the world and different cultures as just another new thing.