Culmination Essay

Introduction

“Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really based on vicarious experience” (Toolshero, 2019). This is according to a renowned psychologist Albert Bandura who is globally recognized for his immense contribution in personality and social cognitive psychology. He argues that human behaviors are learnt observationally through social interaction and modelling from others. Notably, we understand the world through events that we encounter in life as well as interactions with others. Social constructs “help people make sense of the objective world and build their perceptions of reality” (Mouzelis, 2016). Personally, life experiences, interactions, and social backgrounds have influenced my personality as well as how I perceive the world. Therefore, this essay seeks to explore how various social constructs have influenced different aspects of my life.

The act of being kind and generous is among the things I have learnt through experience and interactions with people. When growing up, my parents held the virtue of generosity and insisted on helping people without expecting any favor in return. The religion has also shaped by generosity since the bible encourages people to “be generous and willing to share” (Franklin & Niemandt, 2015). Personally, I have grown up to believe that being kind and generous is a virtue that I should hold and pass it to my future generation. My family, culture, and religion have made me believe that it is Godly and righteous to help people when you can. I have practiced the virtue of generosity several times and in different environments. I never regret it since kindness is something that I believe is right and I will continue to practice in future. In school for instance, I would help my sick colleagues in doing laundry, picking meals for them, and helping them take their medications. At work, I usually help my colleagues especially during financial hardships without expecting any favor from them. In times of natural disasters, I contribute food and money to those affected. Notably, generosity is a “guiding principle” that I will uphold and teach my children since helping people is Biblical and right. In future, I plan to open a foundation to help the poor and the needy since I believe that being kind and generous is a source of blessing. Through generosity, one is able to extend love to others and give them a reason help to smile as God advised us to do. Thus, generosity is a social construct that I have held for long and it has transformed me into a helper –something that has enabled me to impact into lives of other people.

According to Black (2018), life is full of hardships and everything cannot go on smoothly. Through continuous interactions with my family and friends, I came to learn that tough times are normal hence the need to remain strong and resilient in order be able to tackle problems courageously. Worst moments are common in life and they prepare one to be strong in future. I have learnt that during worse times, it is wrong to retreat into self-pity but rather confront situations head-on. Challenges and hardships are there to strengthen our personalities and not to make us weak. Hardships help us realize our weaknesses so as to ensure that we do not repeat certain mistakes in future. Worse moments have helped me to endure challenges and build the virtue of patience in life. For instance, when I lost my dad 5 years ago, I was weak and almost lost hope but family members and friends encouraged me to be strong since that is normal. Life moved on and I was able to finish my studies contrary to what I had thought of. Notably, this prepared me to become strong in case of such cases since death is inevitable and no one can refute that fact. The most important thing is to be prepared for such moments in future.

People have secrets that they do not wish to share with anybody else. In my tender age, I believed that keeping secrets can make me happy and also offer me security since no one knew my strengths or weaknesses. However, as I grew up and interacted with people among them family members and friends, I built a new construct of opening up to people around me. According to Brenner (2019), “keeping secrets may actually cause harm.” Notably, keeping some secrets hurts and may lead to psychological problems such as stress and depression. Personally, after losing $3000 to scammers, I kept it a secret because I felt that friends would laugh at me. I had nothing to cater for my bills but I tried to keep it as a secret. I began selling household items to cater for my expenses and depression began to set in. However, my friends noted the changes in my behaviors and forced me to reveal the truth. After opening up, I came to realize that I was not the only person who was scammed. Even my close friends had lost more money than me. I felt relieved and when I shared it with my family, my brother gave me $2000 to start over again and that is how I was evaded depression that was almost taking up my life. Generally, I have grown to understand the need of sharing your secrets with family and friends since it is not good to hide secrets which can affect you.

Conclusion

In conclusion, life is a learning process whereby we understand the world through interactions and life experiences. One’s perception about the reality is based on social constructs created through sharing with others and what you encounter in life. Notably, we learn new things everyday unless we cease to exist. The things we learn shape our understanding, culture, and beliefs. Personally, I have been able to ascertain that human interactions influence the way we build meaning about various situations in life. For instance, I was not born knowing that generosity is right or wrong but religion and interactions with family members and friends have helped me understand that I should be kind and generous to others –a virtue I will hold forever and pass it to my children. Thus, social constructs shape various aspects of one’s life including culture, beliefs, and customs as discussed in the essay.

References

Black, H. K. (2018). Soul pain: The meaning of suffering in later life. Routledge.