rewrite

The purpose of this paper is for me to share my life story from a sociologist view. I will be covering several events throughout my lifespan that had help shape me into the individual I am today. I will do this by use one term per chapter that was cover during this course. I will also be reflecting back on the weekly discussing. There were a lot of variable thought-out my duration.

I was born in Florida in 1971. As I look back on my life, I recognize some of the events that help shape the person I am today. The social setting of large families was the norm back then. As it is different today, where families have few children, I come from a family of nine children. I am the third oldest and have to take on many different roles. Being born into an ascribed status, I was determined to change my status from poverty to at least middle class. As my agents of socialization, my parents did not stress how important education; either of them did not finish school. In my mind being successful meant doing well in school. My life took it first major change during the end of my fifth grade year of schooling, my parents separated. My mother drinking increase, which I found myself in experiencing my first role conflict between her and my grades cause I have less time to study. I have to learned how to balance schooling with help taking care of my sibling; so I guess you can, as that was also my status change from sister to partial care provider. This was a difficult time for me being the second oldest daughter. My older sister escapes this responsible. For some reason our parents sent her to live with our father parents in Cordele, Georgia. I always felt I got the short end of the stick. I have to make sacrifice but she did not. And still today I am look at being the oldest of nine when I am actually the third oldest.

My mother passed right after my 11th birthday, this was depressing, and it caused me a state of anomie. I was angry with both of my parents more so with my father, I felt he let me down as a father so I held him responsible for her death. I felt confused and engaged in irresponsible behaviors, such as hang out late nights and doing unspeakable things. I was annoyed with the world and did not know how to process the grief I was in this probably why I became a social deviance. Fortunately, I moved from Florida to Georgia to stay with grandparents, a move that helped in my social construction. The distance from my peers helped me desist from irresponsible traits; my grandmother had a way of telling educational and insightful stories that instilled good life values in me. To date, I still practice the values my grandmother taught me and have instilled in my friends and siblings.

My social network in Georgia was my family. We were surround with uncles, aunts, and cousins. This was the first time I lived in a neighborhood were everyone was family. It was strange at first but I learned how to adapt. My friends were my cousins. We did everything together. It was like a close and tight community until tragic strike again. We had grown secure and strong with my grandmother only for her to pass on when I was at the age of sixteen. The demise of my grandmother was a big blow to me as it caused an immense culture shock in my life, I questioned life and became skeptical of the things and people around me. The strong pillars of my life, my mom and grandmother were taken away; leaving a huge void that affected how I viewed life onwards. Due to the culture shock, I decided to be emotionless and brave, which made me overcome life hurdles to date.

I moved backed to Florida to stay with father and his new wife. I understood he needed a life companion and it was one of the norms for people to be married even after their partner passed on. My father new wife did not want to take of eight children. My oldest was grown and married when grandmother passed. So, once again I had to take on the role as partial care provider. As previously education was not stressed as necessary in our household because of different ideologies and culture lag. My father had grown up in a family background that did not identify well with education; his new wife was also uneducated. The two had a culture lag in matters of education; their ideologies were about working hard and not committing to distractions like education.

I was fortunate enough to convince my father on the essence of education, and he supported me all through. I graduated in 1989 fighting the setbacks in my life with a positivist sociology mindset; it helped me to keep focus. Socialization was exciting to me, and I ensured I made new friends. I earned a one-semester scholarship that I thought would have helped with my consumerism since I would save my funds. Instead, I decided to join the military; this was mainly due to the media, it portrayed the military as an honorable career. Media also helped throw light on gender roles, which allowed me to pursue the male-dominated career. I served a total of 22 years of military service.

My first duty station was Germany where I enjoyed a foreign national status; I always wanted to travel and experience a new culture. First time being away from family was an exciting experience for me. I felt I was on my way of making my dream come true about middle class. I travel and visited several Europe countries while I was stationed there.

I became pregnant and was married in 1991 in Denmark. One year unto my marriage I discovered that I was not in a dyad. We seek marriage counseling to save our current lifestyle because of our child. Regrettably, the marriage counseling did not help much. We later ask our pastor to be the mediator; however due to many conflicts we could not workout, we divorced in 1994. I was determined did not get married again because of the lack of trust I developed toward the opposite sex.

My second duty station would be Elpaso, Texas, which was a line unit that consists of more males than female. Unlike my first duty station, which was a not, a line unit that consists of more female and males equality conditions was not granted to me. I have to prove that I can be just a good as my male counterparts. My third duty station would be Augusta, Georgia. This is where I meet my second husband. We dated for six months and before he asks me to marry him. This was a very hard decision for me because he was of a different race. And I was worry about my family not accepting him. Even though, my family never displayed racism I was still mull over. I was also bearing in mind about our children future as well. Being be of an interracial family how would life be for them. And also they would always be thought of as African American because of the one-drop rule. I gave in and remarried in 1995 as a result of the reflection theory; I wanted to have a united family that would see us grow into the future. Therefore, I thought hard and settled for a partner who has held my hand since then.

My second child was born in 1996. Two years later I was assigned to South Korea on an unaccompanied tour for one year; my third duty station. This was one of my hardest duty station the first time being separated from my children. I contemplated about ending my career in the military. But six months into my tour it got easier and I was granted mid tour leave which help a lot. I found after this separation the next ones came much easier.

My second son was born at my fourth duty station, which was in Killen, Texas. I was untied with my family there. I was prejudice by my male peer because I was a female. I last female that held my current slot lack the drive. I had to proved that I was not her and do not judge me before you know me. I was now in charge a Logistical Warehouse. I have 34 soldiers that fall under my supervisor once they were release by the Platoon Sergeant; he was my peer. The first Platoon run was to rest me. The Platoon Sergeant lost over half his soldiers’ trying to out run me. Let say; I did not have anymore problem with this male peer for the rest of my tour there after our first run.

My fifth duty station would be Germany again. I have the opportunity to revisit so of my favorite places the second time around. I love sharing these experiences with my family. It felt good to know that I was open their eyes to different culture and how our culture compare to others culture. This help me validity what type of example I was setting for why children.

My sixth duty station would be Honolulu, Hawaii. This was my long I place assignment due to all the deployments. I was deployed three times from Hawaii to a combat zone for over 15 months each time. This was not good for my marriage or my children. We are had to adjust to me coming and going sometime without knowing for how long. After my last deployment I was great ill. I was always on sick role. Two years later I retired from the military with an honorable discharge. Life was pretty much normal until last year. My older brother was diagnose with stomach cancer and was given six months to live. He was the first to pass away out of the nine of us. He was 48 years old. I took with very hard. I did not think I was going to be able to recover from such a terrific event. I start going back to church and seek help from the pastor to help me understand and cope with this lost.

In conclusion my lifespan have experience several trajectories, main events, and turning points.

Glossary

Anomie: a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness (chapter 1)

Agents of socialization: Family, Schools, Peers, Media; the socialization that we receive in childhood has a lasting effect on our ability to interact with others in society (chapter 4)

Ascribed Status: a status into which one is born; involuntary status (chapter 4)

Consumerism: the steady acquisition of material possessions, often with the belief that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved (chapter 3)

Culture: the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; everything but the natural environment around us (chapter 3)

Culture lag: the time gap between appearance of a new technology in unfamiliar culture (chapter 3)

Culture shock: doubt, confusion, or anxiety arising from immersion in an unfamiliar culture (chapter 3)

Dyad: a group of two (chapter 5)

Equality of condition: the idea that everyone should be an equal starting point (chapter 7)

Gender role: sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female (chapter 8)

Ideology: a system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of cause and effect (chapter 3)

Media: any formats, platforms, or vehicles that carry, present, or communicate information (chapter 3)

Mediator: the member of a triad who attempts to resolve conflict between the two other actors in the group (chapter 5)

Middle class: a term commonly used to describe those individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line – though this is a highly debated and expansive category, particularly in the united States, where broad swathes of the population consider themselves middle class (chapter 7)

Norm: how values tell us to behave (chapter 3)

One –drop rule: the belief that “one drop” of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from U.S. laws forbidding miscegenation (chapter 9)

Positivist sociology: a strain within sociology that believes the social world can be described and predicted by certain observable relationships (akin to social physics) (chapter 1)

Prejudice: thoughts and feeling about an ethic or racial group, which lead to preconceived notions and judgments (often Negative) about the group (chapter 9)

Racism: the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits (chapter 9)

Reflection theory: the idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere, a screen onto which the film of the underlying reality or social structures of a society is projected (chapter 3)

Role: the duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status (chapter 4)

Role Conflict: the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles pertaining to different statuses (chapter 4)

Sex: the biological differences that distinguish males from females (chapter 8)

Sick role: concept describing the social rights and obligations of a sick individual (chapter 10)

Social Construction: an entity that exists because people behave as if it exists and whose existence is perpetuated as people and social institutions act in accordance with the widely agreed-upon formal rules or informal norms of behavior associated with the entity (chapter 1)

Social deviance: any transgression of socially established norms (chapter 6)

Social network: a set of relations – essentially, a set of dyads- held together by ties between individuals (chapter 5)

Socialization: the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society (chapter 4)

Status: a recognizable social position that an individual occupies (chapter 4)

Validity: the extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure (chapter 2)

Valves: moral beliefs (chapter 1)