What is race?

Today we learned that race isn't just the color of your skin.  From the activity where we matched a person to the race I was surprised about their race. Because all humans come from the same ancestor in Africa, the Asians and the Europeans have the same genes as most of the population in Northern Africa. The skin color evolved differently for populations for better adaptation to the environment. The bottom line is that race is more than the color of one's skin.

Random Act of Kindness

During my shift of volunteering at the hospital I usually stay in the supply room. But once in a while I get the opportunity to go out of the room to deliver a package to a certain departement like pediatrics. On my way to the route I saw a woman that was confused and seemed to look lost. I asked her if she needed help to get to her destination. As I was about to tell her the directions I instead chose to walk with her to find the room. 

While doing this act of random kindness I felt proud to be a volunteer and that I actually helped somebody out. It was the direct opposite feeling then I was expecting it to be because I thought it would feel uncomfortable and awkward. After helping out the woman the rest of my shift felt more interesting. Usually my shift is focused on finding the things in the supply room for each departement. For the rest of the shift it made me happier and I wasn't as tired when I had to deliver packages throughout the hospital. Without me I am sure the woman would have found her destination later on, or somebody else would have given her the directions. But when at a hospital it feels like everybody is busy and it is hard to ask for simple directions not to distract them. 

The Big Rectangle

As I pressed the off button on the remote, the room became unbearably quiet. Looking around the room, I was embarrassed at how I spent hours in front of the tv while the living room was a mess. How could an electronic device capture all of my attention to the point where I was unaware of my surroundings. I continued to sit in front of the blank tv and seeing how dirty the screen is from my little brother's fingertips. Doing nothing but sitting on the couch for an hour somehow drained all the energy I had before that. The realization that I did nothing for a whole hour but sit and stare scared me. I wished to get my lost hour back and to cook something or finish the calculus homework. Facing the stealer of time in front of made me realized how disappointing it is how easy the tv could be turned off. Why do so many people fall prey to the entertaining tv and the comfortable couch? I feel like ever since I was little I would always turn on the tv after I got home even though I wasn't tired and I had other things to do that same day.

If there are so many negatives to the tv how is it possible that millions are sold everyday? The value of society on tv is humongous because without a tv an individual would have a harder time connecting to rest of society. Will society ever change the high value of watching television? 

Family Socialization

For my sociology homework I needed to do an interview with my parents and how they raised me. When doing these interviews I did not receive any amazing insight about myself. My parents did not have any extreme expectations before I was born, they only wished that I was healthy. After I was born they tried the hardest to teach me the values of the Buryat culture. Some of those values include having high respect for the adults in the family which includes grandparents, uncles and aunts. For them the most important tradition that I carry on is knowing the Buryat language. Unfortunately I never learned to speak in Buryatski so its pretty disappointing. I was an easy going child and they did not have a hard time disciplining me. From my mom I get a hardworking personality and the annoying habit of always trying to make finish tasks with the best effort I can. The habit of being overprecise is the most annoying one cause it will never stop nagging if I do not give the best effort I can, but if I am tired or sleepy that can be easily forgotten. From my dad and I get my driving habits at getting easily annoyed by bad drivers. Its not that I honk or make weird gestures at them but I do get very annoyed by them.

Reflecting upon my interview I did not learn anything more about myself that I did not  know before. My mom had a really hard time on expanding her answers from just a simple statement because I knew or I could predict what she was going to say. 

Being sociologically mindful

When watching the videos about how the Lost Boys of Sudan traveled to America it was interesting to see their point of view on our life. I moved from Russia, so I could relate to my first experiences with them. Ever since I was little I had many friends from all over the world because I lived in Madison, Wisconsin including Honduras, South Korea, and Nepal to name a few. By always being surrounded by different cultures from a young age I considered my self to be sociological mindful. Before I even took the sociology class at my school I knew that the differences in the material and symbolic culture of America compared to Russia. But what I learned in sociology class was more in-depth including learning about folkways, mores and taboos. I realized how much folkways control our lives in our different societies. In America for example when seeing a family member or a friend the most people will do is give them a hug. While in Russia when you meet a family member or a friend there will always be hugging and kisses on the cheek no matter the gender. If the same thing happened in America that would be considered a mores. Another interesting sociological observation is the different values American and Russian cultures have. In Russia there is a lot more emphasize given on the value of respect to elders. In schools children will always stand up when a teacher or another school officials walks into class. While in the United States some teachers are barely noticed by the students and are barely given the necessary respect. And even in Russian movies the teenagers give a lot more respect to their parents unlike some American children who yell at their parents. The way I've been raised most times I am too scared to yell at my parents not because of any punishment but because it is extremely disrespectful. From what I learned in sociology class it helps me see the finer differences between cultures and be able to identify them as a certain type. In addition to having a proper reaction to it without showing any signs of disgust or "weirdness", because that is impolite and rude.

Alien's POV

Around a magical age between tween and teen years, the children of this society receive a small box that lights up when the buttons are pressed. For some of these kids, these boxes barely travel far away from them. When the box gives of a sound or a vibration kids get excited to see the box light up. The reactions of the kids are always different depending on how the box lights up. Sometimes if a young female sees the lights she will jump and start chattering to her friends about what she saw in the box when it lit up. Other times the child might look at the screen and start to panic, become angry, or even ignore the box.

Usually when children are left alone or a bored, they will pull out their boxes and start pressing buttons. It seems as if they wouldn't be able to survive the loneliness without the box lighting up. In addition, there are a few rare boxes which can connect to pieces of string that the child sticks in their ears. Non stop sounds come out of those strings. There are special programs on the box which produce moving images which the child can control by pressing buttons. Children lose track of time when they become enchanted and press buttons for hours and hours.

This magic box can literally control children.

Why do different societies treat children in completely different ways?

In America, parents over protect their kids. A babysitter is always hired for most children who stay home alone in elementary school and even up to middle school. Aren't they old to stay home alone at middle school? What about going to bed at 7pm? That seems crazy from my point of view. 

Growing up in Russia I would spend most of my time with friends outside till night came. Kids as young as six year olds can go and play outside by themselves without supervision. I never had a babysitter that would come to my house when my parents would leave me. Being home alone was never a big accomplishment it would just happen. I also never had a bedtime. I would go to sleep when I was tired. In Russia at least in my family kids are given a lot more responsibility for themselves at a younger age.

I think the difference is that in America children have a lot more tv and media around them to be afraid of staying home alone. In my hometown staying home was always the most boring part of life. I didn't watch much television because there wasn't anything fun to watch. Instead I spent most of my time outside. Comparing my childhood to my brother's, his is completely different. In our neighborhood there are no kids playing outside. It pretty much looks dead. Without many options he spends his after school time inside watching nonstop television from PBS kids or CUBO channel. Whenever I leave him alone to just go and pickup the mail he gets extremely scared. Personally I think it comes from watching so much television that he's brainwashed to think that when young kids stay at home they always need a babysitter or else the robbers come or a monster would get them. 

Doing nothing

Doing nothing for 10 minutes in public seems like a joke, right? It's not. One of the few challenges that I had was that I seemed so awkward just standing in the room and waiting for the bus. But everybody was doing that and after a few minutes it became normal to me. I was observing everybody walking by and they had something in common. At all times they were doing something, talking, walking, texting, listening to music nobody just stood there. And then I realized how loud and busy it was inside. The noise level rose as I noticed it.

Those 10 minutes were truly relaxing. I wasn't thinking about school or being angry at my dad for being late. A break to just breathe and enjoy the time.

This I believe...

This I believe that working hard can help reach goals. Freshman year, Cindy persuaded me to join the Science Olympiad team at my previous high school. For some reason or another, I came to the first meeting on a Thursday after school, expecting to be bored to death but the variety of events drew me in. I decided to do three events Anatomy, Disease Detectives, and Experimental Design. Soon after I wrote my name on Anatomy sign up sheet, the club leader handed me the heaviest and biggest textbook I've ever seen. I was intrigued by all the colorful images but reading the text itself? That was the hard part. On my first competition for anatomy I barely knew any of the answers, in that one hour so much anger had built up inside of me because I didn't study well enough the night before.

This motivated me to push myself harder to learn for my Science Olympiad. Science Olympiad is about wanting to learn something outside of school. Though this might sound ridiculous I enjoy the club most of the year. Except the night before the competition where I try to relearn everything in one night, it’s almost like having an extra final on a Saturday. As a junior in high school I truly tried to study for the exam during the autumn so when the time comes for the competition I won’t need to do all nighters. As I was taking the test the anatomy test last Saturday I was surprised at the ease I could find the answers. It was as if the answers were written on the test itself.

Sitting at the medal ceremony with my team I waited until they finally announced the scores for anatomy. That one minute seemed to last forever because they would state who won the bronze, the silver and finally the gold. Squeezing my partners’ hand we waited to hear our names to be called for third place, they didn’t say it. I squeezed harder only hoping to get a silver medal, but another team one that. Never have one first place I was sure that that we must have lost and didn’t even score in the top three. But then I heard my school names said aloud. At once my partner and I jumped from disbelief. All the studying that I did before the event had really helped me achieve my goal.