Blog entries must be 200-400 words in length and must be submitted as comments to the main thread before the next class period.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Winter Class (4)
For this week, please reflect on your own identity, and how you think it effects your life and the way you relate to others. Feel free to reference the Joel Madden video or anything your group discussed.
I noticed that my group members and I had similar categories on our identity wheels. I suppose that demonstrates why we are grouped together for Give Kids the World; we all share similar interests. “Student” was a large chunk of our pies, because I feel it is a characteristic we’re all proud of. School can sometimes be a burden and a very large stress-producer, but when described as a definable attribute, being able to receive a quality education is a blessing. Being a student teaches me responsibility, self-discipline, and definitely acceptance of others’ ideas. I’m easily able to work along side others due to many years of group projects and involvement in extra curricular activities. When reflecting on the identity activity, I realize these are experiences that some are never offered. I work hard toward my education, but I feel having the resources to attain it puts me in a privileged group. Growing up in the United States with a well-established public school system can make that easy to forget. I differed from my group by labeling a large portion of my identity as “able-bodied.” I have a close relative that suffers from multiple sclerosis, so good health is an attribute I think about daily. I try to be productive with my days and remain active, because I have witnessed what it is like to be robbed of these simple joys. I try to live my life by the quote, “that those who can, should.” It keeps me motivated and influences many of my actions. By understanding what it’s like for others effected by poor health, I feel like I am able to be a more compassionate person. This part of my identity influenced my choice of major, nursing, and continues to impact my decisions everyday.
My identity is something that is extremely important to me, yet I find that most of the things that make up my identity are things that I don’t think about regularly. Even though I may not think about some aspects of my identity, all parts play a role in how I act and relate to others.
The most important aspects of my identity to me are Christian, student, and American. I feel like these parts of my identity are what I spend most of my time thinking about, and they most strongly influence the choices that I make. As a Christian, I believe that I should show God’s love to everyone. This tremendously affects how I respond to others. If someone is rude to me, I try my best to not respond in a rude or unkind way. Most of my values that I feel strongly about have stemmed from my faith. Although a couple of people in my group shared this identity trait, it was not as common as the identity of being a student. In fact, I think everyone in my group shared “student” as one of their largest parts of their identity. This makes sense because we are at KU to learn, and we spend practically all day in and out of classes and studying. Especially for me, studying, learning, and getting good grades is extremely important. This is what I spend the majority of my time doing. Besides academics, I also have a lot of pride in my school, which increases my sense of identity as a KU student. I also have a strong identity as an American because I am extremely devoted to this country. I am very interested in politics and passionate about my views. But even more importantly, I recognize how blessed I am to live in this country. Freedom is something that I do my best everyday to not take for granted.
Other aspects of my identity include female, heterosexual, white, and able-bodied. These are parts of my identity that I don’t spend a lot of time consciously thinking about, but they affect how I act and relate to others. I sometimes take these aspects for granted. I don’t really understand what it is like to be a targeted group. It is interesting that although these are the most visible and definite traits, I do not think about them as often.
Some of the major identities I listed on my identity wheel were ‘student,’ ‘liberal,’ and ‘feminist.’ I am affected on a daily basis by some of my identities, but the identities like race, gender, religion and socioeconomic status affect me less than other. My identity as a student affects me every day because I go to class and work on schoolwork every day. Identifying as a liberal affects me because my values and morals shape who I am. I believe that every human is equal, and everyone should have equal opportunities in life. This identification doesn’t define who I am, but it has helped me shape my beliefs in life as I have grown and formed my own opinions as an adult. My feminist identity may be one of the identities that impacts me the most on a daily basis. It’s something that I didn’t really identify as until last fall, when I was enrolled in a women’s studies class. Ever since taking the class though, I realized that there is nothing wrong with identifying as a feminist. Just because I identify as such does not make me more “crazy” or “extreme” than I was before. I try to remain as open minded as possible when relating to others’ identities, and I think my beliefs help me be more empathetic towards others. One of my group members said that it was really difficult for him to create his identity wheel, because he doesn’t really think about his identities on a day-to-day basis. I agree with him, in that I don’t walk around thinking about my race, religion or socioeconomic status every day. However, I believe it’s personally beneficial to recognize that these are all factors that give me privilege over others. It gives us a better awareness to situations where we might be at an advantage compared to the others around us. The first step to breaking down barriers is to be aware of one’s privilege.
For the identity wheel from the Alternative Breaks class, I distinguished myself as a female, liberal, a KU student, a Kansan, apart of the human race, and an individual with ADHD. To be honest, it was quite difficult to condense who I defined myself as within a small pie chart. I'm not certain if I adequately portrayed myself as well as I could. However, it's important that we reflect on who we really define ourselves as in order to establish our beliefs, values, morals, and philosophy. In retrospect, the importance of recognizing your privileges through your identity is a key way to experience humility as well as humanity. This, in turn, can help us accept the parts of us we cannot change and better the parts of us we can change. On another note, it can help us realize that one person isn't necessarily better than another because they're prettier, smarter, richer, or what have you. A significant portion what makes us who we are is the situation we're born into. That being said, no one should feel they own these privileges or are entitled to them, rather they should be proud of who they are but also put privileges they have into perspective.
I noticed that my group members and I had similar categories on our identity wheels. I suppose that demonstrates why we are grouped together for Give Kids the World; we all share similar interests. “Student” was a large chunk of our pies, because I feel it is a characteristic we’re all proud of. School can sometimes be a burden and a very large stress-producer, but when described as a definable attribute, being able to receive a quality education is a blessing. Being a student teaches me responsibility, self-discipline, and definitely acceptance of others’ ideas. I’m easily able to work along side others due to many years of group projects and involvement in extra curricular activities. When reflecting on the identity activity, I realize these are experiences that some are never offered. I work hard toward my education, but I feel having the resources to attain it puts me in a privileged group. Growing up in the United States with a well-established public school system can make that easy to forget.
ReplyDeleteI differed from my group by labeling a large portion of my identity as “able-bodied.” I have a close relative that suffers from multiple sclerosis, so good health is an attribute I think about daily. I try to be productive with my days and remain active, because I have witnessed what it is like to be robbed of these simple joys. I try to live my life by the quote, “that those who can, should.” It keeps me motivated and influences many of my actions. By understanding what it’s like for others effected by poor health, I feel like I am able to be a more compassionate person. This part of my identity influenced my choice of major, nursing, and continues to impact my decisions everyday.
My identity is something that is extremely important to me, yet I find that most of the things that make up my identity are things that I don’t think about regularly. Even though I may not think about some aspects of my identity, all parts play a role in how I act and relate to others.
ReplyDeleteThe most important aspects of my identity to me are Christian, student, and American. I feel like these parts of my identity are what I spend most of my time thinking about, and they most strongly influence the choices that I make. As a Christian, I believe that I should show God’s love to everyone. This tremendously affects how I respond to others. If someone is rude to me, I try my best to not respond in a rude or unkind way. Most of my values that I feel strongly about have stemmed from my faith. Although a couple of people in my group shared this identity trait, it was not as common as the identity of being a student. In fact, I think everyone in my group shared “student” as one of their largest parts of their identity. This makes sense because we are at KU to learn, and we spend practically all day in and out of classes and studying. Especially for me, studying, learning, and getting good grades is extremely important. This is what I spend the majority of my time doing. Besides academics, I also have a lot of pride in my school, which increases my sense of identity as a KU student. I also have a strong identity as an American because I am extremely devoted to this country. I am very interested in politics and passionate about my views. But even more importantly, I recognize how blessed I am to live in this country. Freedom is something that I do my best everyday to not take for granted.
Other aspects of my identity include female, heterosexual, white, and able-bodied. These are parts of my identity that I don’t spend a lot of time consciously thinking about, but they affect how I act and relate to others. I sometimes take these aspects for granted. I don’t really understand what it is like to be a targeted group. It is interesting that although these are the most visible and definite traits, I do not think about them as often.
Some of the major identities I listed on my identity wheel were ‘student,’ ‘liberal,’ and ‘feminist.’ I am affected on a daily basis by some of my identities, but the identities like race, gender, religion and socioeconomic status affect me less than other. My identity as a student affects me every day because I go to class and work on schoolwork every day. Identifying as a liberal affects me because my values and morals shape who I am. I believe that every human is equal, and everyone should have equal opportunities in life. This identification doesn’t define who I am, but it has helped me shape my beliefs in life as I have grown and formed my own opinions as an adult. My feminist identity may be one of the identities that impacts me the most on a daily basis. It’s something that I didn’t really identify as until last fall, when I was enrolled in a women’s studies class. Ever since taking the class though, I realized that there is nothing wrong with identifying as a feminist. Just because I identify as such does not make me more “crazy” or “extreme” than I was before. I try to remain as open minded as possible when relating to others’ identities, and I think my beliefs help me be more empathetic towards others.
ReplyDeleteOne of my group members said that it was really difficult for him to create his identity wheel, because he doesn’t really think about his identities on a day-to-day basis. I agree with him, in that I don’t walk around thinking about my race, religion or socioeconomic status every day. However, I believe it’s personally beneficial to recognize that these are all factors that give me privilege over others. It gives us a better awareness to situations where we might be at an advantage compared to the others around us. The first step to breaking down barriers is to be aware of one’s privilege.
For the identity wheel from the Alternative Breaks class, I distinguished myself as a female, liberal, a KU student, a Kansan, apart of the human race, and an individual with ADHD.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, it was quite difficult to condense who I defined myself as within a small pie chart. I'm not certain if I adequately portrayed myself as well as I could. However, it's important that we reflect on who we really define ourselves as in order to establish our beliefs, values, morals, and philosophy.
In retrospect, the importance of recognizing your privileges through your identity is a key way to experience humility as well as humanity.
This, in turn, can help us accept the parts of us we cannot change and better the parts of us we can change. On another note, it can help us realize that one person isn't necessarily better than another because they're prettier, smarter, richer, or what have you. A significant portion what makes us who we are is the situation we're born into. That being said, no one should feel they own these privileges or are entitled to them, rather they should be proud of who they are but also put privileges they have into perspective.