Week 10 Post (Final!)

*Singular Girl and the Social Change": Applying Sociological Mindfulness as a Sociologist

Through the Looking Class

Being in this class for the past 12 weeks of spring quater I will not only will be more prepared for my major with a foundation for the next four years, but have learned to be more conscious about my choices, perceptions, implications and causations both socially and morally. I have learned to not simply look at social structure and constructs such as race just as how they are, but how they are made in their origins, and how they are reinforced by societal constructs and cultural norms everyday.

I have learned to see the world in a new way from different sociological perspectives and can apply these tools of knowledge I have acquired to this class to a variety of settings, social groups and situations around me everyday to a Schwalble may suggest resist the power schemes embeded by others. I believe this sociological toolbox of knowledge will help me to navigate better and more sociologically mindful choices that are not harmful or simply perpetuating a cycle of negativity, but beneficial to others in both college life and the real world to see situations in the context they are made, and to not make generalizations about a particular instance or group, whether it is a political concept/ideal or an everyday average shopper.

I have learned to see the world more clearly and critically for the better with sociological mindfulness through the eyes of a sociologist, and hope to continue to question learn and grow in this process as I continue my studies for the next 4 years to question and analyze the world and environment around me in "How I know what I know" to live a "sociologically examined life".

I believe a sociologist work is undervalued but value should never be understimated as a sociologist work is never done. There will always be social, cultural and ethnic groups, polices, theorems, experiments, political and religions and educational events and of course people to study all interlinked by the common thread of humanity and what make us human. I believe it is fair to say that looking through the eye of a sociologists and applying the tools and wealth of knowledge that I have learned in this class as a foundation and will continue to explore, I will never look at my world and community in the same way again. And as long as there are people, their will always be a need for sociologists to study them and contemplate the interations and inclinations of daily life both ascribed and achieved, weather it be race, wealth, gender or class. Thank you for reading the thoughts and perspectives I've shared, as I hoped they have in some way enlightened you to an aspect of the world around us.

I would like to finish off this final chapter of this sociological journey with a quote from playwright Luis Valdez, that I feel personifies my experience and journey so far in learning the life long possess of being sociologically mindful: "Ultimately, he truest mirror of one's intelligence, is his or her value towards fellow human beings" (1992 SCU Commencement Ceremony).