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.