ATA5

I liked this assignment because it made me think about all that I have learned this semester, and how this class has helped me to grow as a student. With this being my first semester at ODU it has been an even bigger learning experience as I am also adapting to a new college and how they run things.

I found it interesting what I put together when it came the different chapters/artifacts and how I related to the class objectives through out the semester. I appreciate the opportunity to reflect and to review areas of opportunity for future courses that I take!

ATA4

I know I said before I’m not a meme person, but this class has really brought out my meme skills. This is also my favorite one I’ve found. I painfully relate to this! I really enjoyed taking the test. I CAN NOT handle that many questions ever, but I realize why it is necessary. I really appreciated how much it actually reinforced my progress with my own journey. If I had taken this test even 6 months ago I don’t think I would have gotten the same score as a result of my perception of my story.

I have worked rigorously for years to untangle myself from a lot of negative beliefs. It has been slow and daunting at times, but in my opinion this development has been the most valuable asset I have ever gained. I have always been an empath, but that doesn’t mean you always know how to handle emotions. In fact for me it was so overwhelming that I felt I had little to no control over the effects of mine or others emotions. I am grateful to have done some great work and can’t wait to see what the future brings!

ATA3

It sounds silly, but I really realized how passionately I feel about certain topics. When I took sociology a few years back and sexism and racism were our topics I felt similarly. At the time I think I felt more shy about expressing my opinions. I didn’t want to engage in controversy, and most of all I didn’t want to be misunderstood. As I mentioned before I took a diversity class at my previous position where majority of the people who attended expressed they did not realize adversity effected white people as well. It annoyed me slightly, but compassion and understanding shone through.

                I think that changed things for me. I still feel strongly like people misunderstand where I am coming from, and I do not speak out on social media or even engage in these conversations in my own time. I just don’t want to spend my time and energy focusing on these topics. It is not because I don’t think they exist, or that they are unimportant to me. I do feel and see the effects of these issues, but I don’t see the benefit in continuing to examine and hone in on the details. We don’t have control over the world or even other people’s actions. All I have control over are my reactions and thoughts about myself and others in my community.

                I feel like we are truly obsessed with obtaining what we already have access to within ourselves through others. I know there are injustices, and people that pose as a threat just based on what you look like. I am not immune to the pain and suffering that comes from being violated, discarded, and ignored. I choose to listen, respect, and love my fellows even when they are not to me. It may not change my outward circumstances, but I am not interested in the material manifestation of “equality”. I feel it because I am it. I share it because I have it, and it is not contingent on anyone or anything else.

ATA2

I really enjoyed this chapter. I found it to be pretty challenging of my “self”. We all like to believe that we are authentic, and that we have a good concept of who we are. I really identified with the inaccurate depiction of ourselves. As I indicated before I have long struggled with low self-esteem. I frequently looked to other people to “validate” my worthiness, but more often than not I looked to validate my own self perception of being “not good enough”. I was often told how intelligent, clever, and empathetic I was but had a hard time seeing those traits myself or more importantly seeing those things last over time.

I found it somewhat empowering to recognize that we all struggle with being “right sized”. We are either too little or too big and we sometimes need outside influence to bring us to the middle. I also really identified with introspection being more subjective. If I’ve had a belief that I am “unworthy” and have been operating on that for majority of my life does introspection really teach me about myself? Not really! I am still coming from my perspective and don’t always know the reasons why I operate the way I do! My Father likes to pick at me and say I really “nuked that” or over analyzed it. He I both suffer from analysis paralysis!

Reading and thinking about the different selves we present depending on social circumstances or the environment we are in didn’t feel like news to me. I’ve been told I am a chameleon and a part of my challenge has been to be more true and consistent to myself. I enjoy many different things and empathize very easily which allows me to connect with people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. However, it does serve as blessing and a curse sometimes. Empathy and connecting does not always mean I have to absorb the other person or person’s experiences or feelings!

ATA1

I was recently having a discussion with my Husband about how social psychology is so easily translated to Marketing. I recently took an Intro to Marketing class, and I remember thinking “I could be really good at this.”. Unfortunately, I would be as psychology is something I have a decent understanding of. Coming from a social perspective it seems as though Marketing is sleazy and manipulative. Genius in its own right, but I would definitely rather be on this side than the latter.

Mass hysteria and the media have always been a dinner table topic for me. People sometimes describe me as a conspiracy theorist, but really I’m just a curious two year old that likes to entertain every perspective of a hot topic. Our perceptions are so limited even if we do exercise them. It is impossible to fully understand or grasp a concept in most cases. Fear is a survival instinct, and we often operate on archaic principles. We are living in an outrageously over developed world where we don’t have to “fend” for our food/selves in the ways we did as cavemen/women. Yet we are still operating on these primal urges and respond as if we are!

I find it to be even more fitting that I am inserting memes as a part of my paper. A perfect example of how unfortunate my generation is. For the record, I am not tech savvy, selfie obsessed, or entitled. I like to believe my generation of millennials is an odd mishmash of traditional and unconventional. I found the idea of presenting yourself in a different way depending on the circumstances/group entertaining. Solely because that seems to be shifting in my opinion. Not because people are more comfortable in their own skins, but more because there is a deep lack of people skills and relationship building techniques in the younger generations. That is my opinion. Having conducted many interviews myself (interviewing others my age as well) there is often not the same drive to create a “good first impression” as much as it is a casual encounter “take it or leave it”.