Lauren, REdefined

Knowing what I know about sociology, I truly don't think my answer would change that much, the only thing that would change would be the way to explain it. (the changes are in green)
the following is my first blog from janurary...

Who Am I?

Why is that simple question so difficult to answer?

• Our culture has placed teenagers in that awkward self-discovery phase because we are too old to be kids, and too young to be adults.
• There are a lot of factors that make up a person and they increase exponentially as they grow- when we are born we have an open mind, and then our environment and the somewhat invisible standards and pressures that society puts on us impact the person we grow up to be.
  

I'm Lauren, I have brown hair and brown eyes, I'm 5'8.
but what else? I can't seriously be defined by what I look like

• Although I said I cannot be defined by what I look like, many people in America and the rest of the world are, racial profiling exsists no matter what we think, we place stereotypes behind a certain race, such as all black and hispanic people are criminals, when in reality they are not. However, white people aren't usually defined by their race because society has made it the superior one (no matter how untrue that is)
  

So what defines me?
If I was a dictionary entry, what would it say?
Lauren is funny, outgoing, hardworking...
Wow, way to sound like a college essay there, Lauren.

• With all of the pressure put on people (especially women and teenage girls) by the media, it is hard to find other traits that can help define people, however I don't want to be known as the way I look, I want to be remembered for who I am inside (no matter how corny that sounds...)
  

Who helps define me?
My family, a given. My mom taught me how to be strong and hardworking. She once told me to CHOOSE MY BATTLES. I thought she was crazy until it actually came into play. Don't get worked up over the small things because they're not worth your time. My Dad taught me hard love, he pushed me until I got it right, which eventually I did.
My friends, They have gotten me through my best (getting into every single college I applied to) and my worst (breaking my ankle, losing my cousin in January) . They have shaped me throughout all of my 'awkward' teenage years, and have made such an impact on my life I couldn't help but include them in my definition.

• In class, we talked about master groups that define us, and my family and friends are definitely 2 HUGE ones in my life. My family is where I got my values and manners from, they also taught me almost everything I know, and continue to encourage me along the way, while my friends have influenced the way I dress, talk, what music i listen to, the phrases i use, and some of the choices I make in life.
  

What helps define me?
My experiences. From moving to a new school in fourth grade, to spending almost a month in a wheelchair during junior year, my experiences have taught me to be more understanding and accepting as well as outgoing and laid-back.

• The experience up there (being in a wheelchair) has alot to do with deviation. People have an automatic prefrence to able people, so I often felt abandoned and alone during that period. I understand I can walk fine now, and some people will be confined to a wheelchair for life and those experiences make me want to help and befriend them.
  

So, Who Am I?
I'm Lauren, because that's my birth name. I Have brown hair and brown eyes because my parents do. I'm outgoing because I get pushed into new experiences all of the time, I'm accepting and understanding because I've been bad off before. I am laid-back because I choose my battles.
I am me.

• I am defined by my world around me, whether it be my family's annual income, the family and race I was born into, the country I live in, my political ideology, my appearance, or the countless hours of television shows I watch a week.. I am defined by my history and by my present. I live a sociological life.
  

Race and Crash

Although I missed the first 1/3 of the movie, it wasn't hard for me to catch on to the racism present in the movie. Sandra Bullock's character especially held stereotypes about hispanic people that weren't true. She felt uncomfortable when the locksmith was hispanic and she said that he was going to give the key to his "homies" so they would rob the house. This stereotype wasnt true because this man whether he was hispanic, asian or white is just trying to make a living in America and also not all hispanic people are thugs and have intentions of stealing and drug dealing.

I have been a victim of stereotyping especially because i'm jewish.

I was in Wisconsin at a waterpark with my friends and we were talking to these guys in the pool. All of the sudden one of them turns to me and was like "my mom just told me the funniest joke EVER, do you want to hear it?" I reluctantly agreed expecting it to be some dumb joke i probably wouldnt laugh at instead it was "how do you fit 10 jews in a limo? - 4 in the backseat and the rest in the ash tray" I automatically caught on to the holocaust refrence. and told him I was a jew. He looked like he just met a celebrity. He was like "Oh my gosh Ive never met a jew before" The conversation kind of died down after that and then we got out of the pool and we saw them later and they started throwing pennies on the ground and they were like "don't you want to pick them up? you jew." I was so suprised at how vicious they were. It was my own personal (to a lesser extent) crash moment.

race and checkmarks

Often for research purposes, standardized tests and surveys will often put a box where one has to fill in their race. The only options they give are usually african american, caucasian, pacific islander, and hispanic. Although for me personally, it isn't hard to fill in, there are people out there who don't really fall into any of those catergories. In class we looked at people who were from Australia but would be called "black" in America, but on that question they can't really fit into the african american category because they aren't from Africa. I think that like the author of "Mixed Blood" said Race is a myth. Race is a bunch of simple words like black and white that society created definitions for. Back from the orgins of slavery, it is apparent that a majority of "white" people feel superior to blacks or have a prefrence to white people over blacks although they probably don't consider themselves racist. So what race does exsist? the human race, and everyone is apart of it no matter what their physical features are.

Pass go and stay the same.

Next year I will be starting college, and after that my future is all up in the air. My plan is to hopefully get a job right after graduating, slowly move up within the company and become CEO and live the high life. Chances of that happening? slim to none.

I'm guessing my future might go a little something like this: Graduate college, move back in with the parents, get a job, and stay at that for the rest of my life, or at least until retirement. It's not my dream route, but it's not entirely made up either, it is the route that both my parents followed once they graduated college. It's not because I have grown up watching their lives and thinking "I wanna be just like that some day" It is because they are providing to me the same opportunies they were provided when they were my age.

Both my parents come from upper middle class families, and were able to attend big10 schools and graduate and get jobs that they have basically stuck with since then. It is rare that someone will move up a class from their parents, I wish it would be me, but I'm going to have to win the lottery if i want that to happen..

whole wheat bread and labels

I have been in the upper middle class my entire life, but I never realized my social class could affect the food I like, until now. Because my parents had choices on what kind of food to feed me while I was growing up, they went for the more expensive whole wheat bread and also lactose free milk (although it wasn't a choice for them- they are lactose intolerant).

When I first went to kindergarten and had a carton of milk and a slice of wonder bread with my lunch. My parents told me that I had refused to eat and drink it because I didn't like the way it tasted. I now realize it was because my parents raised me drinking lactose intolerant milk and whole what bread that I had only developed a taste for that.

Not only has the upper middle class lifestyle conditioned me to only like certain foods, but it has also condtioned me to only like certain clothes and things. For example, a simple wallet. I got a wallet from limited too when I was in grade school. My mom got it for me to put my allowance in (my whole $5 a week). My friend saw my wallet and asked if she could get one, so her mom told her to save up her allowance and then took her to target, to buy one that looked so similar to mine that the only difference was that her's didn't say limited too on the front. Even though they were no different, I wanted to get the one from limited too just because it was from there. I have also noticed this in my older years as well. I went shopping in florida with my mom at this insane mall in hollywood. We went into the juicy store and I got a green zip up. I probably could have gottten that zip up anywhere else for less, but I got the juicy one instead.

Through the video and discussions we have had, I truly feel like my class has affected me as a person.

Prisons and Justice

(sal, sorry I accidently pressed save instead of publish...)

After viewing the "30 Days in Prison" video as well as reading "Courtroom 302" I never felt so disgusted at our country. We pride ourselves as being the land of the free, yeah of slaves maybe- but most definetly not of prisoners. The way our prision systems work is like a revolving door. People go to jail all the time for theft and drug crimes, and when they've rightfully served their time their just thrown back into the exact same world they started in. They usually have trouble finding a job or getting education so they resort back to crime, and guess where they end up? back in jail. I believe that their should be reform for prisons in America, but they go overlooked. Why? mainly because we (mostly meaning I) grew up in an area where people are arrested then pay bail and get out of it. I only knew of criminals as the thugs who have tattoos covering their whole bodies and shoot people for fun on the weekends. After learning about prisons and the penal system, I almost feel bad for the criminals- even if they did go against the law. They have everything working against them and thats why they keep ending up back in prison. It's sad but true, and if the prisons cared, they would set up ex convicts with a job in a semi good area wherre they could actually turn their life around.

Social Class and BMWs

After reading the article "Saints and Roughnecks", I related to the way society creates an 'image' for you by the social class you belong to. For example in the article the roughnecks were from lower class families and were often taunted by the police, involved in theft and violence, and were constantly told by their teachers they would get nowhere in life. On the other hand, the upper middle class saints were involved in crimes like underage drinking, some theft and drunk driving, but because they were from good families, generally excelled in school, and had the resources to stay out their town's visibility, they were told they would go places in life, and most of them did.

So How does this relate to me? I'm glad you asked....

This past summer I got a new car. I was sad to leave the car (a jeep)I learned to drive in and got my license in behind, but I was happy to be driving a car that got more than 12 mpg. My parents leased a brand new BMW for me. I pulled up to a friends house for a pool party and was greeted by this guy I had only met a few weeks earlier and he said "wow, i had no idea you were rich" I immediately shot down his comment explaining the whole situation.. my dad is an employee for BMW, and in june they sent out this special deal that employees could lease brand new BMWs for a reduced price every month. Everytime it got brought up that I had a BMW I felt the need to explain the whole situation. I didn't want to be defined by my car. Don't get me wrong, I love my car, but I don't like the image that it gives off. It screams "HEY IM RICH LOOK WHAT MY DADDY JUST BOUGHT ME" and I try to shy away from that as much as possible. I'm not "rich", both my parents have full time jobs, and I even work 3 days a week.

The image that your social class gives off may get you out of things (like the saints) or get you into things (like the roughnecks) but I find myself somewhere in between letting my social class image define me and making my own images define me, and I'm happy where I am :)

feminity and hillary clinton

Society gives us definitions for how we are supposed to be within our gender.Women are supposed to be weak, unintelligent, dependent.
While we discussed this in class, one example came to my mind, Hillary Clinton.

With the big announcement of the democratic candidate for the election of 2008 looming over our heads me and my friends sat at my lunch table discussing Clinton. When she got brought up I rolled my eyes. For some reason I couldn't stand her, and I never really understood why until now.

Unlike the sterotypical women, Clinton is strong, independent, and intelligent, and now I think subconciously that may have bothered me.

At first I was disgusted at the list shown on the overhead, in my mind I hought "WHO WROTE THIS??? SOME SEXSIST PIG!?" But then I realized how many women do fit into this stereotype, and at some points I admit that I do too. I have seen through the media (books, television, movies...) that women are often portrayed like this, and the fact that Clinton isn't made me uncomfortable because of how much it deviated from the social norms and the definitions for women in society that I was used to.

college, college, college

Over the summer, the time when school should be the farthest thing from my mind, I was making lists. Lists of the classes I was going to be taking in the upcoming fall as well as lists of the colleges I would start applying to in a few short months.

Ever since freshman year, it's always been about college, college, college... if you don't get an A in this, you wont get into a good college. If you don't take AP classes "good" colleges won't even consider you. Every year, I challenge myself even more.. add an AP here, take accelerated here, take this and that so I can get into a "good" college.

The time came and I frantically filled out transcript request forms, composed fine tuned essays about doing this activity and that trip, and pressed the submit button on 5 different applications. By Novemeber, I had heard back from all of my colleges, and had been accepted to all.

So that means decide on one and cruise through the rest of the year, right?

WRONG.

This year has been the most challenging year thus far, and I know it probably won't get any easier until June 7th rolls around.

School challenges us to see us excell, see us get into the college of our choice, and of course keep up their already high test scores.

tuesdays with morrie and dependency

Tuesdays with Morrie wasn't just a movie about the devotion of a student to his teacher, but underneath that, Morrie taught us lessons about life that we could never find in any textbook, one thing he discussed was dependency.

Humans are the most dependent creatures on this earth, the minute we are born we depend on other people to do things such as feed, dress and bathe us, while a baby horse for example can run on its own just minutes after coming out of the womb. As we get older though we learn to do things on our own like walk, eat, bathe and dress ourselves-- through these things we gain the American value of independence. Our culture often teaches us that in the long run, most people let us down.. this is magnified through divorces, breakups, lay-offs and rejections. We learn to be more independent and we fear moving backwards towards the ways of children who can't do anything for themselves.

Although in some situations I am dependent, mainly on my parents. Although I have the ability to go buy my own groceries, I depend on my parents to do it for me, and when I need a poster board for a project last minute, my mom is already at walgreens asking me if I want white or lime green. It does bother me how dependent I am on my parents, especially because I'm going to be moving out in 5 months, and I need to learn how to do things for my own and not rely on people to always do them for me.

Stevenson, St. Louis Park, and Me

Every year, I take short trips sporadically to Minnesota to visit one of my best friends, Rachel.
Last time I visited, I shadowed her at her high school in St. Louis Park. I went to all of her classes, finding that even some of her hardest ones (AP and IB) didn't seem quite as challenging or demanding as even my regular classes at Stevenson. It wasn't just the curriculum and the difficulty of the class that I saw noticeable differences in, it was also the way the students treated their teachers and just acted in general. When I walked into her spanish class, I was greeted by a kid who yelled "OH SH*T WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" The teacher was standing right there and didn't even react to that comment. Also the kids in that class were goofing off the entire time, making inappropriate comments toward the teacher and overall just being out of control. The whole time I sat in silence, laughing at the occasional joke or comment, but thinking "is this how they really act? This would never happen at Stevenson" Rachel later told me they had made previous teachers cry.

Although I didn't realize it at the time, the culture at St. Louis Park high school is a lot different than Stevenson. At Rachel's school it might be acceptable to treat a teacher like that, while at Stevenson it is seen as a more.

If I were a student at Rachel's school, I might have been goofing off with the rest of them, but because Stevenson has conditioned me to be a well-mannered hard working student, I saw their behavior as strange and wrong to me.

affluenza and poland.

This summer (as i talked about in a previous blog) I spent 5 weeks in Israel, but for the first part of that trip I was in Poland.
During my twelve hour flight, I was anticipating how sad Poland would look. In my mind it would be all gray like a dramatically lit movie, and everywhere I turned I would see slums and concentration camps.
When we finally arrived, it was a muggy and cold day, similar to our weather now (50's and rainy). Our counselors gave us time to recuperate from our flight by sleeping and showering before a walking tour of Poland. I was so far from thrilled about that tour it was insane.
Before our walking tour began, we went to a mall for dinner we were given zloty (polish money) and sent off. I was expecting there to be only random polish restaurants and maybe McDonald's, I was so wrong. I opened up the doors and saw woodfield mall. Ornate decorations hung from the ceiling, escalators snaked throughout the multiple floors, department stores with window displays and "SALE" signs lined the long corridors. I finally arrived at the food court and saw Subway, Burger King, and Pizza Hut. I was shocked.
Many countires are trying to follow American's style of living. They see that in America, malls are a big deal and consumerism is on the rise, and Poland has jumped on this bandwagon.
They are becoming more of a americanized culture rather than a unique, individual one.

By the way, I chose Pasta to be different- which it wasn't.

Poland overall wasn't the nightmare I thought it was going to be, some parts were what I expected (slums and concentration camps) but a lot werent:

Old Town Square in Krakow

A Bronx Tale.

The movie, A Bronx Tale, profiles an urban Italian neighborhood in the 1960's.

The main character C, is just 9 years old when he witnesses a shooting right outside his front door. After this event, there are clear parallels between the older (Sonny, johnny whispers, frankie coffee cake) and younger generation (C, Slick, Mario).

When the movie jumps forward 8 years, the influence the older generation has had on the younger one is very evident. C and his friends are sitting outside the social club smoking cigarettes and hollering at ladies across the street, just like they had seen it done when they were younger. C and his friends grew up in this neighborhood surrounded by people who intentionally hurt and sometimes killed others with little or no mercy. As they grew older, the younger generation in the neighborhood tried to buy guns to protect themselves.

These weren't the only bad things they picked up from their elders, they also picked up their racist attitudes. In one of the most intense scenes during the movie, C's friends start beating up blacks who were bicycling through their neighborhood. Their racist attitudes rooted with the influence of their neighborhood as well as the time period (the 1960's were the height of the civil rights movement). Their histroy and biography influenced the way that they lived their lives.

gang leader for a day.

In the book, Gang Leader For a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh explores what life is really like in the housing projects of downtown Chicago.

Early on in the chapter, Venkatesh talks about the two different kinds of sociologists, the quantative ones who rely on facts and statistics and the enthographers who use first hand approaches.

Venkatesh, dismayed with all of the mathematics that he sees going on in sociology, decided to take a different approach. Surveys in hand, he crosses the border between the nicer side of Hyde Park and the projects. When he asks J.T. a gang leader the question, "what's it like to be black and poor?" all of the gang bursts into laughter. After kicking back a few beers with him, J.T tells Venkatesh about drug dealing, shootings, different gangs and weapons. At the end of the chapter, J.T and Sudhir become somewhat friends.

Overall the chapter was long, but fulfilling to read. One part that really stuck out to me was when J.T was talking about the difference between African Americans and N****rs and about how certain black people are trying to get into white suburbia but are getting beat down by the police. The reason that stuck out in my mind was because ever since Lincoln freed the slaves (yay presidents day!) Our country has been in a back and forth civil rights battle, and even when people think that we are getting ahead, we're not. The CHA (chicago housing authority) was going to tear down the housing projects that so many people call home to make more room for apartments and condos. Things like that make me question if equal opportunity actually exsists when authorities are blocking you. Yes, we do have a black president, something that I am so happy for, but the fact that do much racism and hatred still exsists really sucks.

Venkatesh went into the projects as a quantitative person, seein groups of people as statistics and nothing more, and came out an experienced person. If more poeple opened their minds like Venkatesh did (not necessairly saying that people should hang around in the projects) that would at least make room for a lot less stereotypes.

Reality.

This summer I sat, dressed in full army attire at a simulation army camp, overlooking the beautiful mountains of Israel's Golan Heights.

<--- This was my view!

Those five days had been absolute hell for me: drinking out of a sandy canteen, sleeping in barracks with no pillows, getting bruises from crawling on the stony hard ground, going to bed at 9:00 with barely any food in our stomachs, and then waking up at 5:00 am to start all over again. My Mefakedet (commander) called me over, since she was Israeli, she could barely pronounce my name and ended up calling me Lorraine. In that circle I sat with 4 or 5 other Americans and and 4 Israeli girls from my group who talked about how excited they were to join the army next year. Although I knew it was a law in Israel to enroll in the army once you were done with high school, I still felt shocked. Next year I will be starting college having the time of my life, while some of my best friends will be risking their lives fighting for their country.

My society made a plan for me: graduate high school --> go to college --> get a job

I realized that my Israeli friends have a different social reality than me, they have been surrounded by the army all their lives, their mothers and fathers fought for the country, and they will just follow in their footsteps. Similar to how I am following what my mother and father did when they were my age.

Up until that day, I was close-minded, thinking that everyone was going to follow the exact same plan as me, but I realize that everyone grows up in different environments and that makes them the person that they are.

Sounds of Silence.

A phrase often used by my friends and I is: "It's only awkward if you make it awkward"
But is it? Is silence something that is considered awkward no matter what?

In my opinion, there are two types of silences:
1) When people don't know what to say or how to react
2) When people have nothing to say or don't want to react

The first one is the one that most people think of when talking about the 'awkward-ness' of silence. Often in this type (from my experiences) follows an argument, comment, or meeting between acquaintances or random strangers.

The second one, although it is still silence, is definitely less awkward. One example of this is my car rides to school. Usually we say hi to each other when we get into the car, but then majority of the ride is spent in silence. Not because we don't like each other and we are doing it out of anger, but because we each use the silence as our own personal time to reflect and relax before the coming stresses of the day ahead. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our thoughts that we don't even realize that we aren't talking.

So is silence awkward?
Well my answer to that has to be, its only awkward if you make it awkward.

Lauren, Defined.

Who Am I?

Why is that simple question so difficult to answer?

I'm Lauren, I have brown hair and brown eyes, I'm 5'8.
but what else? I can't seriously be defined by what I look like

So what defines me?

If I was a dictionary entry, what would it say?
Lauren is funny, outgoing, hardworking...
Wow, way to sound like a college essay there, Lauren.

Who helps define me?

My family, a given. My mom taught me how to be strong and hardworking. She once told me to CHOOSE MY BATTLES. I thought she was crazy until it actually came into play. Don't get worked up over the small things because they're not worth your time. My Dad taught me hard love, he pushed me until I got it right, which eventually I did.

My friends, They have gotten me through my best (getting into every single college I applied to) and my worst (breaking my ankle, losing my cousin in January) . They have shaped me throughout all of my 'awkward' teenage years, and have made such an impact on my life I couldn't help but include them in my definition.

What helps define me?

My experiences. From moving to a new school in fourth grade, to spending almost a month in a wheelchair during junior year, my experiences have taught me to be more understanding and accepting as well as outgoing and laid-back.


So, Who Am I?
I'm Lauren, because that's my birth name. I Have brown hair and brown eyes because my parents do. I'm outgoing because I get pushed into new experiences all of the time, I'm accepting and understanding because I've been bad off before. I am laid-back because I choose my battles.

I am me.