Disturbing/Contributing to the Norm

To a lot of people I am known as the talker who usually carries on the conversation and who can talk on and on about anything. Throughout the week and the weekend, I didn't do any major act to disturb the norm of people in my life.  However, last week, while my roommate was doing her homework and I was getting ready to go to my volunteer position, I asked her how she was doing, how her family was doing, how her classes and homework was coming along and many more questions relating only to her. As she talked, I just listened very closely and observed without talking back besides replying from here and there.
As our conversation was coming to an end, she stopped and asked me why I was asking her so many questions and why I wanted to know so much. By this time I was chuckling a little to myself because I was pretty convinced from the questions I asked her that I sounded like a total creep, so I told her that I wanted to ask not because I was stalking her but just because I felt that I wanted to catch up with her and how life was treating her.
My roommate and I are very close, however, I caught her off guard when I didn't talk as much and just listened patiently. It was really interesting to listen rather than talk because it showed me another side to being quiet. In addition, I was able to observe my roommate and learn more about the way she thinks and take things in. From this experience, I didn't disturb the norm of society but the norm of my life.
Because I didn't talk as much as I usually did, my roommate tried normalizing the situation by asking me why I'm asking so many questions about her and from this experience, I liked how it was something out of the unusual to do because I was able to catch her off guard. Furthermore, I don't think it was an uncomfortable task because I enjoy learning from different perspectives.

Personal Billboard

Above is my license plate, relating to my personal billboard, I believe Family plays a main role in my life because they push me to strive and to keep going when I feel like giving up. Also, from being the oldest in my family, I try my best to be a good role model by experiencing with as many things as I can so I can help give advice and tips to my younger siblings when they are in need. My family shapes me by expecting and relying on me, and from that, I am able to grow strong and independent. Moreover, I chose Florida as the state license plate was because my family and I's first vacation together was to Florida. Although I was only 9 years old then, I had a great time since it was my first time riding in an airplane to a different state. The vacation to Florida opened many opportunities for me to explore and made me dream bigger than I could imagine.

In addition, my Culture and Language has a lot to do with how I grew up and why I do the things I do. For example, being able to speak two languages can help me to communicate in many ways with others. It also helps me to relate with different people because it teaches me to think in many ways and to be open minded to those around me. The picture to the right illustrates me and my two younger sisters at the Hmong New Year. Each of us are wearing different Hmong clothes and are representing our culture. The Hmong New Year allows me to build connections and meet new people every year and because its part of a tradition to happen every year, society changes and improves year by year. 

Sports also shapes the way I think and makes me very competitive. I love and enjoy playing football because its a passion that I've grown attached to. I learned and made a lot of friends through football because its a way to network with others but at the same time, football and sports in general keeps me productive. Throughout my high school years, I grew up with football, the lessons I've learned can also relate to life in general so I would compare the two a lot. For example, I can compare football to school a lot because to be able to be perfect a play, you'd have to practice and study using your free time to ace a play, meaning if I studied as hard in school for a class or an exam, my chances of acing the exam or class would be higher. Furthermore, I enjoy the adrenaline rush I get when playing against another team because when the crowd cheers, they encourage me to keep running and striving to win! Due to football, I've grown closer to my teammates because they give me the confidence to play the position I do. Also, knowing that I can rely on them when I need back up builds up our relationship. I represent my football team and vise versa because I want my team to be known, it also shapes who I am and what my identity is.  

Assignment 1: Larger Social & Historical Events

Throughout chapter one, the author discusses about how the social forces can have an impact on our private lives, sociological imagination. He also described how to view suicide in a sociological perspective rather than attributing an individuals' achievements and failures to their personal qualities. Although, at the age of twelve, I was more interested in sports and eating rather than worrying about how I looked, many other younger girls were having a hard time trying to fit in with other clique's because of their size and fear of being made fun of. The question of being "thin" never really crossed my mind before, but it raised questions on why girls my age would worry so much. I soon realized that the media played a bigger influence than our parents, who would always say to us that we were "perfect just the way we are."

During the time I was twelve years old, society had already sculpted the picture of how women and girls should look like- Thin. Society influenced young adults and girls to look like many celebrities by photo shopping their photos and of models, from news articles to magazines, their audience starts to adore their figure and eventually  change themselves into something they're not. Sociologists tell us that these encounters have a great deal of social influence over our lives. I would wonder at times why girls my age had such an obsession with being  "skinny," never knowing that the image they had in mind was what the media made of them. Similar to the sociological claim that individual behavior was largely shaped by social forces.