Who Am I?
My name is Ashlee Eskelsen and I am a student in a summer sociology class. Of course, my status set includes a wide variety of items, beyond my status as a student. Among my primary groups, I am a wife, daughter, sister, and friend. My family consists of my parents, younger brother and sister, and our dog, Duke. My husband Jeremy is my best friend and we have been happily married for a year.
My secondary groups have even greater diversity, and among them I am a graduate student, athlete, fitness instructor, physical therpaist aide, certified nursing assistant, and church member. In my spare time, I enjoy running and I am currently training for a marathon.
Sociology:
I have an interest in sociology because my interactions in my primary and secondary groups, along with society in general, has shaped the type of individual that I am today. I have had access to certain opportunities due to the places that I have lived. I was born in Utah and lived in several different states since then. Life is about interactions and connections.
How sociology can be applied to my future:
One day, I would like to work as a Registered Dietitian. I have a great interest in helping people achieve a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and exercise. In order to help people in this endeavor, I must know about their culture and how they relate to food. There is an enormous diversity of food and customs in this world related to nutrition. Respecting that culture will allow me to help the individual make positive healthy changes and give me additional credibility and trust as their dietitian.
After working, I would love to serve a health mission in a foreign country and help women and children in poverty. This summer sociology course has opened my eyes to the great stratification in the world, pertaining to wealth.
An image to illustrate the importance of Sociology:
Life is about connections and participation. In a community, we rely on teachers to educate, janitors to clean, bankers for currency, grocers for food....the list is literally endless. This image (McClean, 2011) shows the wide variety of people in a group that make society function properly.
They are key components in social structure.
Image: McClean, Justin (2011)
A Poem about People:
The poem below, called "People" by Jean Toomer (1894-1967), portrays the concept of diversity- which is a very important concept to understand in sociology. Diversity is variety within a group that results from a social structure in a society. In order for us to really understand people, whether individually or collectively, we must set aside any immediate prejudices and look deeper, to find the real reason for an action, pattern, or set of beliefs.
To those fixed on white,
White is white,
To those fixed on black,
It is the same,
And red is red,
Yellow, yellow-
Surely there are such sights
In the many colored world,
Or in the mind.
The strange thing is that
These people never see themselves
Or you, or me.
Are they not in their minds?
Are we not in the world?
This is a curious blindness
For those that are color blind.
What queer beliefs
That men who believe in sights
Disbelieve in seers.
O people, if you but used
Your other eyes
You would see beings.
White is white,
To those fixed on black,
It is the same,
And red is red,
Yellow, yellow-
Surely there are such sights
In the many colored world,
Or in the mind.
The strange thing is that
These people never see themselves
Or you, or me.
Are they not in their minds?
Are we not in the world?
This is a curious blindness
For those that are color blind.
What queer beliefs
That men who believe in sights
Disbelieve in seers.
O people, if you but used
Your other eyes
You would see beings.
References:
McClean, Justin. (2011, January 29). Class software: I’m now an adobe community champion [Web log image]. Retrieved from http://www.alfagroupnews.com/class-software-im-now-a-adobe-community-champion.
Toomer, Jean. (8, April 2008). People.[Poem]. Retrieved from http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Jean-Toomer/16944.
