As far as the major agencies of socialization in my life are concerned, they are family, religion, school, friends, parenthood, education, and cultural factors. The significant others in my life are family, especially my grandparents and my teachers in school. One early message that I internalized about myself from significant others was that I am one-of-a-kind and loved by everyone including my family and god. I also came to believe that I will do great things because I have a very good heart. Thus, my significant others have had great influence on my personal habits and traditions. First of all, I am family-oriented because I believe family is the sincerest thing to you. I also believe in service community because I believe that is what god expects from us. I celebrate all important religious festivals with family such as Easter and Christmas.
My family taught me that all men are equal before god irrespective of their skin color, thus, I have been a lifelong believer in racial equality. My family also preached to me the importance of community service because god wants us to help those who are less fortunate. I also want to transmit these same values to my family because I believe a society cannot prosper unless it helps everyone stand on their feet and realize their potential. I also believe that community service is our way of thanking god for giving us good life. I also want to persuade my children and others in the future generation to experience other cultures so that they get rid of their bias and truly appreciate social diversity.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Sociological Autobiography of My Life".
The generalized others in my life were my friends, fellow students, and teachers in the school. Like every child, I wanted to be cool and popular and I also knew that one’s academic performance shapes others’ expectations of one’s future prospects. Thus, I studied hard to gain the respect of everyone at school and when they would acknowledge my academic accomplishments, it would make me feel really proud. At times it would feel I do not work hard for my own sake but in order to gain acknowledgement from others.
The generalized others did motivate me to take school seriously and to have a proper career. Even though one should achieve for his own sake, I acknowledge the role of generalized others in keeping me on track and eventually going to college because some of my fellow students barely managed to finish high school. The generalized others also boosted my confidence because I would be acknowledged by my teachers and friends when I would perform well in the test. The feeling was always pleasant, thus, it inspired me to go to college and build a future.
I fondly remember my elementary and secondary school years because I learnt not only in classroom but also outside classroom. One of the things I observed was that social and economic status matters and even if most may not acknowledge, they are impressed by one’s social and economic background. Another I learnt in school is that life is not perfect and bad things can happen to good people. I also learnt people feel more comfortable with their own ethnic groups because one’s ethnicity provides him with an identity. In addition, people in the same ethnic group tend to be quite similar. I did have friends outside my racial and ethnic group but my best friends came from the same ethnic background as me.
I now give more value to my personal opinion of me than those of others. As a result, I will be more independent-minded rather than someone who always takes others’ opinions into account. As far as diversity is concerned, I will make greater efforts to interact with other racial and ethnic groups. I believe the reason I had few friends from other racial groups was that I really didn’t show interest in their cultures even though I would always be respectful towards them. As a result, I will attend more events and festivals that represent minority ethnic and racial groups in America.
