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Over the course of Sociology this semester, this class has really changed the way I think, feel, and view things differently. In the movie we watched this week, there was a quote said that really caught my mind and I completely agree with it. "There are no small feelings." The smallest things we do can sometimes mean the most. In my opinion, they are all the same amount of meaning. An example would be an eighth grader graduating middle school and his teacher giving him a hug. Those things may not look meaningful but to the body, it really is. Even though our world has come to a horrific place, if people could do those little acts of kindness, it would absolutely change the world and how a lot of people feel about our country.

Movie "Crash"

This week in sociology class we watched the movie, "Crash". This movie is all about tracing the lives of different ethnicities. With each race showed in the movie, the movie shows how each race is effected. For example, the man who works on locks was classified as a gang banger just because he had tattoos and he was Mexican. There are so many different examples of each race displayed in the movie. This movie looks at racism inside and out. You know the saying "Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover"? Well, this works in reality too. Don't judge someone just by their skin color and race or classify them into a group because everyone is different and that's what this has taught me throughout  the unit.

Race

This week in sociology we talked about race and how it does not exist. Sal told us that race is just how we see people by skin color, etc. During class one day, we viewed different types of people and were questioned what race each person was. After the comparison to correct answers, we did a poor job. An example of this is Sammy Sosa nowadays. Sammy Sosa was a darker skinned baseball player who played for the Chicago Cubs. Sammy bleached his skin and therefore doesn't look his true ethnicity and wanted to stop being classified as black. Also, in class we were shown different types of sports balls and Sal put them on a table in a linear fashion. We were told to group them in a certain way of our choice. Most students classified the balls together based on each sport or size. In America, we group people by their skin tone, which I believe is terrible.

Community Service

Over the course of the semester, I completed more than ten hours of community service. With the opportunity I was given, I didn't make it a mandatory decision, I made it a choice. Going into the community service thinking in such a way made my experience more meaningful and important to me. I volunteered at the Bill's Youth Football Organization in Buffalo Grove. I started my experience by grabbing new pads and equipment that we received and put them into the football pants. I then set up concussion-proof helmets checking their safety and then hanging up helmets for registration. As the equipment was ready, the registration process had just begun and I already felt like I had impacted the children so much after only a few hours of work. It's amazing how little you have to do in order to make an impact on someone, something, or the community. As the first little boy came in, he had the biggest smile on his face. He couldn't wait to play football this year. This absolutely set up a flashback for me because I played for the Buffalo Grove Bills for eight years and first came in when I was five years old. I am sure that the look on the little boy's face was very similar to the one on my face at the time. This part of the experience really had an impact on me because I went through this process and had the time of my life. After putting in 10+ hours into the organization, it made me feel on top of the world and that I should do this more often. I look to do this again because it makes me feel really good about myself. I would say that I had a very positive experience in doing this and that I view things very different now because of the little things I did for this organization and community.

In sociology this week we continued to discuss about social class. Specifically on Thursday of this week we watched a show called, "30 days". This show was about a guy who wanted to experiment how the life is of making as little as minimum wage compared to his original life. He and his wife were really struggling and barely being able to live in a cheap home. The couple could barely complete this task in 30 days. Imagine a whole life under these circumstances. They would be dying to get a paycheck each week and a huge killer to the money was the medical bills. Living on minimum wage is not a healthy lifestyle, nor a fair lifestyle because the two work very hard and are barely getting it by.

This week in sociology class we talked about social class. Students were asked if they typically talk about this topic with their parents. In America, this is not something we commonly mention or talk about. If we do talk about it, it is usually kept on the down-low and do not tell anybody about the topic. Within this topic, also comes wealth. Wealth can be described with the valuables, such as cars, homes, jobs, education, etc. In our school district of Stevenson High School, we tend to think that we aren't as wealthy as the paper says we are. That's because we are used to seeing our community and neighborhoods over a daily basis. As we voted as a class, across the nation our community is in the top 90 percentile with the education we are given. This also includes our towns that we live in including long grove, buffalo grove, Lincolnshire, prairie view, Vernon hills, etc. Also, around 99.3% of the Stevenson students go on to receive a high school diploma and seek further paths in their education. That is an astonishing fact to know and really affects me that we are that high ranked because I don't even realize how lucky I am to have this. Not just me, but all of Stevenson doesn't recognize the opportunities we have in and out of school.

Deviance

This week in sociology we learned a new term called, "Deviance". Deviance is something that violates a social norm. Many examples deal with "random acts of kindness". In relation to Deviance, we were assigned an experiment to use a "random act of kindness". Meaning to do something that you wouldn't do or see in your everyday life. My positive act of deviance was when I  put gas in my mom's car at the gas station on Wednesday night. This experiment made me feel really unique on both the inside and outside of me because I wouldn't regularly do this for my mom. This is because she knows I hate putting gas in my car, so why would I put it in for her car? Also, she knows that I am just a general lazy teenager and wouldn't see many teenagers doing this kind of act for their mothers. Her reaction was quite what I expected it to be when I told her I put gas in her car. She then replied, "Full of what". And then I said, "gas" and then she said, "thanks! but why?". I then said, "no reason" and continued what I was doing. After that I glanced over at her face and she had the strangest look on her face. After this experiment, really thinking about what I had just committed. After thoughts processed, I wondered what the world would be like if everyone were to commit something like I had just did. The world would absolutely be a better and safer place.

This week in sociology we learned about masculinity and how men are viewed. In t.v shows and movies, men are portrayed as the really tough guys and that leads to men's behavior in real life. Even in real life, men have the attitude to act tough and have all the power. Two weeks ago, we were shown how girls act and what they do when they are little. Little girls have their Barbie dolls and their makeover house/kit. They treat them so gently and lovely as a daily routine life. Now, boys on the other hand play with these action figure type guys and beat down on them with other action figures. They like to rough-house with these action figures. These action figures are displayed as very muscular and tough looking. Theses action figures have a role on how young boys play with them and that leads on to them later in life. This is a huge contributor to how boys and men act in their daily lives showing competitiveness, toughness, and coolness. They think they have all the power and this truly leads to violence. In my opinion, this all started because of a three dollar muscular looking action figure. Look at what this had lead to for masculinity in our society.

This week in sociology we learned about the agents of socialization. The agents of socialization are people and groups that influence our self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors. Basically, they shape us as a person. There are so many groups that can shape us such as family, neighborhood, religion, day care, school, peer groups, sports, work, etc. This week in sociology we also had watched a movie called, "Killing Softly 4". This movie made me want to rethink what kind of impact the media has on the viewers. After my rethinking process, all of it made sense. The media has a huge impact on everyone but girls in general. This is because the girls model photos get edited so they look perfect when in general they look like nothing like they did before. As younger girls develop their role models, they want to look like a certain model and grow up to look just like them. Well guess what? That's impossible! You simply cannot look exactly like your dream looks like you wanted to. This is what the media has done to us and how much power it really has. When watching this video, I found this unbelievable and couldn't believe my eyes.

This week in sociology we started a new unit called "Unit 3: Socialization". We started the week by reading "what is human nature?". This reading was about the certain needs that needs to happen for human development in order to be recognized. Also, how a child is raised can truly determine how they behave later in their lives and how they turn out. In this reading, it talked about feral children, isolated children, and institutionalized children. This reading also really related to the video we have been watching in class on thursday and friday. Also during this week we were assigned to do an assignment called "untv". In this assignment you are directed to watch tv itself. We are supposed to become conscious of how we watch television. This has been a great experiment towards me and it shows me that I rarely pay attention to what the tv is actually doing. This week in sociology has been especially important to me to what we are learning.

This week in sociology we watched a movie that was called, "Tuesday's With Morrie". This great film was about different cultures. This movie was avout a man who was near to dying every minute that went by. His name was Morrie and he went through a lot if struggles. Mitch was a sports column writer who helped out Morrie because he had nobody. Everytime Mitch would come to see him it would be a Tuesday and he would bring goods to Morrie for his visit. Morrie always loved the goods and appreciated everything he did for Morrie. As their journey together on Tuesdays went on, Mitch started ti bring a recording device so he could always remember his voice. At first, Mitch thought it was rediculous and unnecessary but Morrie insisted by saying that he wanted Mitch to always hear his voice. As things continued, they got more and more emotional between the two if them. When it wasn't Tuesday, Morrie would ask where's Mitch? Morrie was having rough times crying himself to sleep at night and was very happy when Mitch was around. Mitch learned the proper techniques of taking care of Morrie when he really needed to such as breathing, lifting him into a chair, etc. Along came the next Tuesday, and Morrie had passed on that Saturday night. Mitch was devastated. After this film, we discussed why the movie was sad and many had the response of because of their relationship and how it tied in with eachother. This was a great film to watch based on what was going on in class and what we were learning.

This week in Sociology we watched, "God Grew Tired of Us". This film is about the Lost Boys of Sudan. The Lost Boys had been through alot and so much was going on. They had totally different societies between Sudan and New York. This was about the lost boys traveling from Sudan to New York to get to a safer place and live in a better community. At home, they didn't have food or jobs or anything most Americans have today. When they traveled to New York, they had split an apartment and learned all about their homes and what everything does. For example, they were being taught what to do when going to the bathroom. Some things they didn't have in Sudan but they have in America are beds, food, refrigerator, bathroom, sinks, clothes, etc. Now that this world and I think about it, Americans are very lucky to have what we have. Americans are fighting for survival like Sudan is. In Sudan, they were helping one another to survive and do things together because there is literally nothing to do out there. This movie had an impact on me because I realized what it was like out in Sudan how fortunate we are.

This week in Sociology we talked about different cultures and how they are unique from what we are used to. You could tell in class whenever Mr. Salituro provided an example from each culture, every student's reaction was like, "What?! That's so weird". Well, this is normal because we just aren't used to doing that because that's not the way we view it. One example in class was when we saw what the toilets looked like in Japan. Everyone asked, "How are you supposed to use that thing?" and Mr. Salituro replied it in a baseball catcher's position. I think everyone can agree that it looked really awkward assuming the American way of going to the bathroom. This week we also read a story about time perception in different countries compared to America. In Brazil, people view time as if it's not a real thing. In Brazil, being late is usual and nobody is ever early. I view it this way, in Brazil being late is being on time no matter the time. In America, we view time as something very important to our country because we run everything based off time unlike some countries. Put it this way, if I Brazil, I wouldn't survive because I find myself always on time and I dislike it very much when people are late when I have to rely on them. You wouldn't be able to do that in Brazil. All in all, this week we learned about Culture Shock, Cultural Relativity, and Ethnocentrism.

This past week we watched a movie named, The Bronx Tale. This movie was about a kid who goes through stages of his both good and bad. Although, some were bad he also had good memories of him and his dad going to the New York Yankees baseball games to watch baseball and spend time with the old timer. The little boy's nickname is "C" and this movie is mostly about how he grows up from his childhood until about the age of 18. C changed as he grew up compared to when he was just a little boy. C saw a shooting in front of his apartment and didn't claim who it was even though he knew because that was how the society was in which he grew up in. Even though C kept a straight face and didn't verbally say who the killer was to the police when he had questions, that shows character on C's part. Growing up, C loved to ride the bus with his father and rang the bell whenever there was a bus stop. But things changed as C got older. As C got older he hung out with the wrong friends and even though he didn't think so Sonny looked out for him. C's friends died after Sonny pulled him out of the car because he knew they were bad people. C started to change once he reached his teenage years because of his bad friends and showed it emotionally towards his peers, such as his friends and family. C's neighborhood was very racist because when other ethnic groups drove or crossed town, they were going to get beat up or even killed. That was "one's territory" and you couldn't go into or else bad things were coming your way. C had changed overtime because he realized they were much alike except from their skin colors, and that they shouldn't be treated differently.

This week in Sociology class we did an activity involving Group Identity Molecule. Doing so in this activity, we were told to write our names in the middle of the page on the blank. After we were supposed to put what groups we were involved in or part of. Some popular groups that students put down were family, friends, sports teams, etc. Also, in this activity we were told to put a master status meaning what people see you as. Most students in the class put a master status of "Friend" or "Teammate" if they were on a sports team. Many people put friend because they are close within that group and associate with that set of people very often. In my case, I like to associate with my groups of friends to play sports with, hang out together, maybe go out to dinner, and just all around hang out with. Many of the people's groups treat eachother the same way, whether it's kind or selfish. These groups can also stereotype others easily and can continue to a chain reaction to other groups. Therefore, after this week in Sociology it has really brought my attention and the real world toward me and what this society has come to. This week in sociology really defined the social structure of our behaviors in life.

Recently in Sociology class we had watched the old TV show Freaks and Geeks. We watched this show because we had look for several examples of how the show showed Sociological Imagination. The show, Freaks and Geeks, is about a high school set in the 1980s about separation of groups. In class, Mr. Salituro gave out slips of paper. On the paper you had a designed question for you. I had question number two focusing on who in the show had the power, why they have power, and how they use the power. In the episode of Freaks and Geeks, the power is distributed mostly towards the bullies and leading bully, Alan. Alan had the power because he literally pushes the little, nerdy kids around. They used in it a violent way towards that one group. This type of high school is totally different because it was 20 years ago. In their society, there were distinguished groups and bullies. The distinguished groups separate the cool kids from the nerdy kids. Today, it isn't like that. Society is much different back then than it is today. Therefore, society has changed and many things that occur in the tv show will not be tolerated if it were to happen in today's society. This also relates to the spit activity in class we encountered in class. Like Mr. Salituro said, "It's okay to spit in some places because that's how us as humans accept it." Humans have accepted or have been used to spitting on a baseball field but not in a classroom. It just feels and looks wrong in the real world. I agree that it does look very strange because we aren't used to that kind of stuff going on.

So, this week in Sociology class we discussed over a few things that I found very interesting. One of the things we discussed in class was about what having a Sociological Imagination is and what it does to others. Sociological Imagination means what influences you to be who you are. We also learned about having Sociological Mindfulness.Sociological Imagnation is things that shaped or influenced you by the time period and where you live. Sociological Imagination can affect you in a lot of ways such as the video Mr. Salituro showed in class this week. The video related to how people are affected by technology nowadays. In the video, it was related to how people frequently use their phones and suddenly become "attached" to it. They just assume that processes zoom by but when it doesn't, they freak out and think their phones are broken. After that, they all of a sudden become into a bad mood. This video showed how phones affect our daily lives. Sociological Mindfulness can be expressed into alot of different ways such as, making positive changes to change our daily lives. An example of this would be texting because when people text their friends they don't realize the impact it could have on one another because its not in person and you don't realize if you are hurting the other person's feelings or not. Therefore, texting truly doesn't have meaning and thats the bad thing that people don't realize because they aren't talking one on one with the person. I feel that texting lacks in most friendships with communication. Therefore, that can be one positive change in one's life.

Who Are You?

The question, "Who Are You?" can be expressed into several different ways. Along with what makes you as a person, comes goals and and purposes in your life. Another feature that makes you as a person is your personality. Every human in society has a different personality and choice of lifestyle. As you already know, interests and goals create a person's personality. My interests are located in the sports department. My favorite sports to play are football, baseball, and basketball. If I had to choose a number one favorite sport, it would absolutely be football. I love the game, its atmosphere, and what it can bring to society. I used to play football for 8 years in grades 1-8 for the Bill's Football Organization. I now play competitive pick up games with my friends on the weekend or whenever I can find free time. I learned how to play football early in my childhood by my dad. My dad didn't just teach me the game, he also coached me for all these years. My favorite position was quarterback ever since I picked up a football. I look at the game of football as motivation because I look to my favorite quarterback, Peyton Manning. I also see football as one of my influences in my life along with college. College is absolutely a huge influence in my life because I have planned on going to my dream school for a really long time now; The University of Iowa. I have always wanted to be a hawkeye and I plan on going there to continue my studies. My goal in life is to be successful. I believe that succeeding through Iowa's Sport Management program would be a great start. Anyways, this is who am I and my life-long characteristics.