SOC 262 Week 1: Sociology Matters

Week 1: Sociology Matters

SOC/262

Week 1: Sociology Matters

Sociology matters because it brings awareness to cultures and patters that you may take for granted otherwise. It also matters because it can show you how you became the person that you are now. There are many questions you can ask yourself to determine the culture you are a part of, along with the different ways that you may view yourself and what has influenced that view. Today, I am really going to focus on what people, groups, or social institutions have been most important in defining who I am today.

As you grow up, there are many influences throughout your life, from a young age to becoming an adult, that really help to define the person that you are. I find it to be very important to look back on those that have influenced you because that is the best way to understand why you have become the person that you are now. Everyone has different experiences and different influences throughout their lives that help with defining themselves.

As I sit here and think about who has been important in helping to define who I am today, I can honestly say that there have been many different influences throughout my life. I would have to say that my family has definitely been some of the biggest influence in defining who I am. The biggest influencers in my family have been my mother and my grandparents. My mother was a single mom for a good portion of my life, so she really taught me how to be independent. She also influenced me to work hard for everything in life because things are not just handed to you. As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, so I got to see how they interacted with each other and the love that they always showed to family and friends. They were also big believers in working hard for things in life, so I got that from them as well. Though I had these great influences to help define who I am in my family, not all family are positive influencers. My biological father was a negative influencer in my life, because of his negative influence, I told myself from a young age that I would do everything I can to not be the type of person that he is. So even though he was not a positive influence, I feel that I became a better person from going through those experiences at such a young age.

Though family has been such a large influence, I also feel that my peers and teachers in school were big influencers as well. I have always found myself being surrounded by people who support each other, even if they have different beliefs, so that is something that I now do in my life as well. I always found myself to have good friends that would listen when you had issues, and would genuinely be there for you. This is something that influenced me because I learned how important it is to have support from your peers and to be able to provide that support back to other individuals. I also had many teachers that would go above and beyond to help their students achieve their goals. This influenced me because I realized it is important to support people and what their goals are in life. It is also important to work hard to reach my life goals and to have that same type of support for myself.

As I have grown up, I have changed so much and gone through some difficult times to get to where I am today. I have had some amazing support from family, friends, and teachers to help me become the strong, independent, caring, and driven person that I have become today. I am a strong believer that the people around us growing up, and even as adults, truly influences the types of people that we are. Though we may not always be around the best or most supportive people, I feel that these situations can be very useful to grow and learn from so that you can become an even stronger individual. I am thankful for all the influences I have had and I hope that I can have a positive influence on people throughout my life as well.