Socioeconomic Status Of My Family

Within our social structure, I identify myself most with the middle class. Both of my grandparents are from Mexico and were one of the first in their family to come to the U.S. The economic mobility of my family trends upward while my family rises in socioeconomic status from generation-to-generation. My grandparents are quite secretive about their lifestyle, so it’s unclear exactly how they were able to occupy the social status that they do today. One thing that is apparent in my family is that one’s achieved status is valued greatly. Migrating from Mexico, my grandparents were faced with issue of resocialization. The following generation, however, was more concerned with their prestige and used the upper class as a reference group to shape …show more content…
My family believed in the idea that the U.S. is the “land of opportunity” (Lecture on Education, July 27). At the time, I followed what my family said and set extremely high goals for myself at a young age. When I was exiting high school and getting ready to enter college, I soon realized that what I had been told in life was false. I couldn’t do whatever I wanted with my life because I couldn’t even afford the college I planned to attend. After that, I started to put less emphasis on the values that my family implemented and started to seek other core values that were being brought up at school. School has taught me that if you want success, you need to earn it through good grades, connecting with people, etc. Not only is school a place of learning, but also a place to build relationships (“People Like …show more content…
Two biographical transitions that have shaped me today are entering college and having my son. Until I entered college, I had no idea how important a higher education was. In my opinion, college has helped transform me into a mature and well-informed person that makes wise decisions. Along with college, becoming a mother is also one of my greatest transitions. Prior to the birth of my son, I was selfish and had a very negative outlook on life. My education and being a mother have affected each other greatly. I believe that if I wasn’t in college, my style of parenting would be different and the quality of my child’s life would be lessened greatly. I also think that if I weren’t a parent, I wouldn’t be in college today. My mother’s beliefs and my beliefs are extremely different. We share the beliefs that a higher education is vital in order to live a decent life and that marriage is an important milestone because it affects the fate of one’s life. The belief that who one marries is crucial because it affects not only the spouse, but the entire family is a belief that members from the capitalist class have (Text, p.