Final Blog

               This semester has been amazing. I have learned so much and I am sad to know that it is coming to an end. However, even if the semester ends, the Sociological content will never be un-taught or not learned. Because sociology is everywhere. The fact that I am sitting in a library, typing on a laptop, is simply not just that. This action is influenced by everything that is involved in society around me. I am doing this blog because I wanted to take this class. I wanted to take this class because I am interested in the way things work in the world. I am working on this ahead of time because I am a good student, and that is influenced by my friends, my parents, the subculture of Stevenson, the American culture and perhaps even the world-ly ideal to achieve. Everything is related to society, whether we like to think so or not. It is hard to believe the number of connections that I have realized in taking this class. This class practically created a whole new and different world for me. I make up a family which makes up a community which makes up the metropolitan statistical area of Chicago, which makes up Illinois, which makes up the Midwest, which makes up the country, which makes up the continent, which makes up the world. And so on. I am connected to everything and everyone around me. I am part of a bigger idea. We are all part of a bigger idea. That being said- I can make a difference. The service experience showed that. Yes, the world is large, larger than is ever possible to imagine by the human brain, but I can make a difference in this world, by simple actions. This class has taught me that the person that I am is a person who is connected. I used to think the reason why I am the way I am was because my parents raised me like that and that it was simply naturally biological that I am different from other people. But that is simply not true. I am not solely impacted by the way in which my parents raised me and my own biological makeup. I am influenced by the people around me, media, race, gender, politics, cultures, and the way in which all of these things join together to create a force called socialization. And this will never stop, not until the end of time. Society and the pace in which society moves in is a much larger force than I think anyone can imagine. It is hard to imagine a person living completely separate from society- it is impossible. Even the feral children that we discussed in class, they were still impacted the animals they grew up around. This class has given me a wider view of the world and has allowed me to realize that I am not simply me- I am a combination of myself and all the other influences that surround me. That is who I am. I am a mix of everything that society places on me. And I do not think I can ever change that.