My Life under the Microscope

My Life under the Microscope

SOCS 185

The older I grow the more everything in my past seems to make sense in relation to the person I am today. The trials and tribulations my family and I experienced have shaped and become the definition of this thing called “life”. I’m pretty clear about whom I am as a person, but now that I know different sociological concepts and perspectives, I’m interested on how society views me as a person. I will attempt to explore the sociological concepts I’ve learned in class that make up my biography. To determine whether my “social influences” such as race, gender, and religion, as stated in C.Wright Mills’s theory, have affected me in a positive or negative way (R.Schaefer 2010).

Growing up as a kid in a single parent family we weren’t the wealthiest but was far from poor. My mother worked at the Hostess factory for about 9 years and made a pretty decent living, which placed us in the lower-middle-class community. The urban neighborhood I grew up in according to Fedinand Tonnies (R.Schaefer 2010) would be a Gasellschaft community. Living in a lower-middle-class community most of the schools I attended were racially diverse, but it was almost impossible to not be drawn to the different ethnic groups you relate to because of your racial background. Throughout grade/middle school I always had friends of different ethnic groups but once I entered high school there was almost a sense of segregation between the students as far friendships. Once I reached my junior year in high school my households’ social class had went from lower-middle-class to lower-class due to my mother being terminated from her job (TCO7). We no longer were able to afford the big 4 bedroom house I grew accustomed to. My mother, my sister her two children, my grandpa who had recently was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I which would be considered my primary group were all now living in a 2 bedroom apartment. We were then introduced to government assistant also known as welfare (TCO3). Also at that time I had lost another person in my primary group my younger cousin to suicide. Given the living situation we were in my mother no longer stressed the importance of an education. Under a lot of stress I decided to drop out of school my junior year of high school, to get a job and help take care of the household. Coming up as a teen in the inner-city as a African American male I was often a victim of other peoples prejudices’ and still am to this very day. Being denied certain life chances due to some of those prejudices I believe lead to my streak of deviance. The recent change in my social class was also played a major part in my deviant behavior. From first being arrested at the tender of 16 years old up until the age of 20 I was making all the prejudices and stereotypes society had about African American males true (TCO5).

It wasn’t until being released from my last arrested that I took life more serious and decided that jail wasn’t a place I could see being myself again. Now in the 20th century it is hard to progress and succeed without any type of educational background. So the first step I needed to make towards changing my life was obtaining my GED, so after five years of being out of school I took the test this past February. Following that I immediately attempted to enroll into Chamberlain College of Nursing, because I have some medical background as a certified nursing assistant. The first time I applied at Chamberlain I was denied due to my entrance exam scores, but I didn’t get discouraged I reapplied the next semester with a 3.76 GPA from another local college and was accepted immediately. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them I am in school especially for nursing. I guess my appearance of an African-American six foot tall, dread-headed male nurse doesn’t fit the usual “bill”, but I do not take offense to the stereotypes I actually use them to motivate me. Given the social status I grew up in and my ethnic/gender background it is very seldom that African American males go to college, and in my community see the age of 25. So that’s why I’m taking the steps now to the males in my community a sense of hope, and become a positive reference group for them instead of the primary groups such as gangs that give are negative influences in their lives’.

I feel like several things have been influential sources in my life such as my social status, race, and gender. Given the social status my family grew up in I feel like that gave me the ambition and drive to pursue a better life for my primary group such as my mother and sister, also for the family I plan to have one day. Versus kids growing up in upper-class families who maybe don’t appreciate the wealth of having college paid for, and live life without any responsibilities because their parents take care of them. Also growing up as an African American male in “White American” has encouraged me to break to cycle of my peers and prove the stereotypes about African American males wrong. Honestly overall I don’t know where or how I would place in a different culture group or ethnic group, maybe more things would be just handed to me, or maybe things could be worse. I know that I’m happy in the skin I’m and the community I was raised in, because I have a purpose and that’s to be a role model to my peers young and old. To show them that someone made it despite all the prejudices, and stereotypes of our race. I wouldn’t change any of the things I’ve been through in my life because they have educated me and molded me into the person I am today.