How my mom helped shape my personality

Everyone that comes through your life leaves a different footprint along the way. Friends, family, teachers all help to shape you into you. Some of the most important people in your life are your parents. They teach you from when your young, among other things, that kindness should be unconditional.

I think that my parents have helped to define and shape me into who I am. My mom especially, has taught me that genuine kindness is always better than acting or pretending to be nice.

I would say that my mom is one of the nicest people I know. She is genuine and exceeds the expectations of herself. She works at a Social Planning Council in Kitchener and is always volunteering to do the little deeds that no one else will or can do. She has driven a blind man home from a meeting so he wouldn't have to take the bus. She stays late so that she can help out her all-over-the-place boss.

I think my mom has a big conscious and the quote: "Monkey see Monkey do" would probably apply to me. I have watched her through out my life and know I find that I have a big conscious too. I feel bad if i have to say no to jobs or invitations. I don't like to ask for things that might inconvenience people.

My mom says that if your to nice you will be taken advantage of. In my opinion i wuold say that she is right, although you don't have to be extremely nice to be taken advantage of. I think I have been taken advantage of when it comes to lending money to friends. If my friend doesn't have a lunch or doesn't have enough money to get something, I will usually just give them the one or two dollars. But it turns out that sometimes they don't usually pay me back which is akward because i don't like reminding people that they owe me money.

I think that this is a pretty vicious cycle and it's hard to get yourself out of the cycle when you don't like to inconvenience people. I would say that it is a pretty akward situation that no one would want to be in.

I think that my parents, especially my mom have shaped my personality throughout my life into something that now defines me as a person. They are the most important people in a persons life and you should listen to what they say because they have gone through most of the stuff you are going through now.

Effects of Pop Culture

Everyone is effected by Pop culture whether they know it or not. It's not just music and movies, it has to do with how you dress and if you follow the trends. Do you tend to dress like everyone else? Do you follow the trends or listen to the same music as everyone else?These things are all a part of Pop culture.

We notice that as you get older you tend to not care as much of what people think of you. When your older you don't follow the trends of youth, like listening to the popular music.

When your young, all this matters. The tatoos and piercings, clothes and music, these are all seen as a status. In my opinion i would say that your status is raised or lowered depending on your physical appearance. If your fat or skinny, short or fat, it all matters when it comes to social groups.

People may say that you can be in any social group you want, "just be yourself" they say, but then we see all the superficial women in magazines and commercials. Do they think that girls will what to "be themselves" after they see these beautiful women?

The media implies that you are only beautiful if your tall and skinny. This probably only includes the models on Tv. Media is full of judgements that no one really needs to hear, it just makes people self-conscious.

I think that pop culture in the sense of being controlled by the media, is pointless. People should not feel bad about themselves just because the media says you have to be tall or skinny. I don't think that people should have to deal with the forces from the media.

Prejudice in our world

No one can go through life without being prejudice. People sub-consciously and consciously "pre-judge" others all the time when they are thinking "she has a big nose" or "she is fat". In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird we recognize many different types of prejudice and racism, from the colour of your skin to the class of your family.

We see prejudice all around us, especially in the older ages of our population. I have noticed that grandparents are generally more racist than teenagers and children. The older ages have grown up in a time when people who are not the same colour, class, age etc. are not of value to themselves.

My grandad was a police man in Toronto years back and I notice that his job has played a big role in the person he is today. I would say that he is fairly racist when it comes to black people and that because of what he has seen he only thinks about the bad side of the people in these situations.

Now we look at the teenagers and children of our time and see that most have learned to be tolerant of other cultures, colours and anyone who may look different. Some of us have learned to be unconditionally kind to others no matter there physical appearance and this is a quality more people should want to have.

Our populations maturity has grown over the years. Going from the times of the holocaust, with the Jewish people and German people, through to slavery of all colours, and now, although we still have a fair amount of prejudice we have at least minimized it from the extreme state of which it once was.

How am I connected?

I am connected enough. I have a tv and computer, a cell phone and an ipod. I don't have facebook or twitter though because i think it is pointless. I think they are pointless because if you already have a cell phone or e-mail to talk to someone then you don't really need to have 5 different ways to talk to people. I think that it is a waste of time when you could be doing more important things like homework or reading to educate yourself. I think that I have just the right amount of connection to the world and I'm fine with what I have.