College Reflection

As I came to college, my family and I anticipated I would be following a simple mold of a conscientious student. One that is highly focused in some limited number of long term goals. Don 't get me wrong, this only meant that I had high expectations out of my college education. For some people, this path leads them to great success. But, I slowly realized my vision of success needed to have stories from different roads and bridges, than just one simple path. As my background stands, I am a first generation immigrant. Like many stories, my family came here seeking better opportunities. Therefore, I say that my story so far is highly sculpted by my experience with the legal system regarding immigration and my relationships with my family from …show more content…
My experiences were put into perspective, and my own perspective on my past had changed. I came in as a sociology major thinking “yes, I want to study humans and our society because we are so interesting”. This vague interest evolved as I started placing my stories next to the ones I was being lectured about involving class discrimination, xenophobia, microagression, stereotypes, gender differentiation and their outcomes in health, happiness within families, education etc.
These are all social problem many people of color can attest to as many aspects of their lives are challenged while they try to build a stronger foundation for their beliefs and identity. These flaw very much affect our education system and our youth. My personal experience is just an ordinary one. Thus, when my younger brother, who was expected to follow a similar path as I did, started to experience a vastly opposite side of the schools, the studies from sociological analysis were coming to life, …show more content…
Shaping your own experience is very important, but guidance is needed, especially to adolescents. They are all of sudden exposed to things like social norming, alcohol and other drugs, ideas of conventional body image, bullying, parental expectations etc. in and out of schools. I am not saying schools should take every responsibility to socialize our youth because that is impractical. However, the lack of awareness these students are under doesn 't serve anybody’s purpose, neither the families nor the schools '. Students should not think that secondary education is easy or just four years to pass time until they are going to the “real world”. Real world can seem cruel if their experiences at school, with peers, with teachers label them “juvenile delinquent”, which can lead them demotivated as they just become another number, another case study. If they could have been more aware of their surroundings, they can have better decision making abilities as they learn their identity. Initiating programs in school that support diversity, identity individual needs, somewhere students could be individuals could be a solution to many problems we see our youth face today. These are my personal identification of our schools, and the effects they leave on our