Running head: SOCIOAUTOBIOGRAPHY 1

SOCIOAUTOBIOGRAPHY

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SOCIOAUTOBIOGRAPHY 2

My socio-autobiography

Many people think that we are all human beings who make decisions in life based on

their own desires. What we don’t remember is that those desires are primarily derived from

the environment. As I grow older I have developed a sense of self-awareness. I have become

more aware of the person I am today. Many factors have played a key role in determining the

kind of person I am today and the definition of “My Life”. Family values and my upbringing

have influenced my life in different areas. I live a very unique life with different personality

and career goal from other people whom we grew up together. Nevertheless, these unique

attributes were shaped by my parent’s expectations. However, the class discussion class

discussions have given me the curiosity of knowing the kind of person I am to the society.

I was brought up with my brothers by my mother and father who was so committed to

his job. He never showed up in any of my functions, may it be school or birthday parties. We

spend most of the time with my mother who gave more attention to my brothers. My mother

had conformed to the patriarchal system since the woman’s place was dictated within the

society by the seventies sexism (Macionis & John, 2011). Having grown up in a middle to

low-income society, family, educational, and religious values were verbalized through threats

on rebelliousness. My mother continued to give birth to more children as a way of playing

her maternal role as dictated by the society. As a way of escaping the shadows of my siblings,

I took the wrong academic part and joined the wrong company as a way of gaining

acceptance from the peers. To reduce the chances of been involved in trouble, my father
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made me work during summer time and gained good work ethics. After my high school, I

was able to join the Air Force where they emphasized the notion of conformity previously

installed by the society through the use of rules and regulations.

Another societal aspect that has shaped my life is my gender. Immediately a person is

born in a society, they are placed in two classes of gender, either male or female. As I was

being brought up, society had imposed the idea of gender norms which implicated in the

types of games a certain gender was supposed to play and which ones were against the

norms. As a girl, the society never expected you to play with toys such as trucks since they

were meant for boys. Girls could only play with toys such as shovels usually in bright colors

and other household items. This was the first steps of how the society socialized children to

different gender roles. This has really affected my personality and the career path I took

(Mann & Allison, 2013). For instance, joining the army is a respectable decision for men

since it is regarded as a male-dominated institution. It stands for all the masculine traits.

I come from a very patriotic culture and as a young child, my parent used to tell me to

great the veterans whenever we met them. They told me that they were sacrificing a lot for

the sake of the county and that without them life could be difficult. At the high school, we

used to stand and narrate the pledge of alliance. All these events have made me become very

patriotic. Communal unity was an important concept since almost all the members of the

community knew each other. Several values such as caring for one another are instilled at

early childhood and this made them become part of my life. In my early years in school, my

teachers taught me how to be respectful to elderly people since disrespect could attract a

corporal punishment. Due to the family and school environments, helping other people

became so natural in me. I have normalized behaviors such as helping a person with a broken

car on the roads and holding the door for an old person to pass.
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However, these were not the only social pressures I experienced while growing up.

The notion of social class was instilled by the education system and the economic

institutions. Considering my family’s economic background, the educational systems

encouraged me to have a desire for good-paying jobs with good geographic flexibility.

The culture of consumerism has also played a crucial role in shaping my life. I come

from a small town which gave me a unique way of looking at consumerism and materialism.

As I grew up shopping and buying of new things became a custom. I observed my friends

and parents buy anything at any given time and as soon as my Dad gave me a debit card, I

started going shopping almost on a weekly basis. It was after learning about the concepts of

socialization that I got to understand the consumerism epidemic in society. My community

places a great emphasis on the physical appearance of a person. From the sociological

perspective, consumerism has unknowingly impacted in my life. I desire new and quality

products constantly. This was a normal thing from my community.

After travelling to so many places and having an opportunity to further my career, I

have gained a lot of knowledge and know-how. I have interacted with many cultures where

people embrace their culture and social norms. Each culture, however, has the bad and good

things associated with it. Each culture may find the other to be a taboo but the reason behind

this is the different ways people were brought up which consequently affect the decisions

they make and what they see as being morally right or wrong. I have learned to respect

people based on their color, race, and other statements of belief issues. These new life

experiences have changed the social and cultural beliefs I had perceived since my childhood

and created a sense of a new world for me. This course has helped me reflect on my personal

life and how the sociological concepts played a key role in making me who I am today.
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Works cited

Macionis & John (2011). Society: the basics upper Saddle River. NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall

Mann, Allison (2013) Trends in gender segregation in the choice of science and

engineering majors. Social Science Research: Volume 42, Issue 6

Socio-Autobiography. (2016, May 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/socio-

autobiography-essay