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Sociological Autobiography
My name is Samaya Afzali and I am a Muslim Afghan American who was born in Hayward, CA. I am the middle child in my family and have four siblings. They consist of two older sisters a younger sister and a younger brother. I currently live with my two parents my mom and dad and three of my siblings. My main goal for the future is to enter the medical field and specifically go into the field of nursing, I also hope that I can obtain my master’s in nursing and continue my education to become a Nurse Practitioner. I hope that I can provide care for ill patients. Another goal of mine would be to make my parents proud and attain stability. The major sociological aspects that will be discussed are society, inequalities, institutions, perspectives, and the effect of Sociology on my life.
Section 1: Society and Culture
Culture has had a huge impact on me and is one of the factors that have shaped me into who I am today. Culture is the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects… (Henslin, 2.1). Growing up my parents and relatives always emphasized the importance of practicing culture and it is still significant in my family today. I and my siblings were taught to speak the native language of where I am ethnically from which is Kandahar, Afghanistan and the language is known as Pashto. Later on, I started learning the main language of Afghanistan which is known as Farsi. I have always enjoyed the material aspect of my culture as well which is physical, technological, aspects of life (Jovel, 09/10/19). In Afghan culture, there is heavy beautiful clothing that comes in various styles and jewelry that is also heavy usually worn with dresses and usually worn during special occasions. The paste known as henna is another material object that is utilized in important wedding ceremonies, and holidays and is a visual representation of celebrations. Symbolic culture has also been prevalent in my life. Symbolic culture is a group’s way of thinking and doing (Jovel, 09/10/19). In my culture, there is this superstition that when two people bump their feet together it is seen as a symbol of a terrible and unfortunate event that will happen between the two so to prevent a bad occurrence, they must shake hands. Gestures are also heavily used, gestures are movements of the body to communicate with others, are shorthand ways to convey messages without using words (Henslin, 2.2). In Afghan culture, a gesture that symbolizes respect and honor is kissing an elder’s hand when greeting them and saying hello. When my grandma was alive me and my cousins would almost like form a line to kiss her hand and greet her and then my grandma would kiss us on the cheek and ask how we are doing. This gesture is mainly directed towards elders of the family and if one were to not do it then it would symbolize disrespect. Personally, it is something important to me and I miss greeting my grandmother this way. Gender is another prominent factor in my life. Gender socialization is learning societys gender map , the paths in life set out for us because we are male or female (Jovel, 09/24/19). In Afghan culture, there are set expectations for what it means to be male and female. Personally, being female we are expected to be quiet, and gentle. Even in terms of the family if I say I want to go out with friends then they must be female and there is an earlier curfew, but if my brother wants to go out with friends his curfew is later and my parents are evidently more lenient. Being a female, I am viewed as weak and not as capable and strong as my brother which is not true. These are still prevalent in my life today.
Section 2: Social Inequalities
In my life, I have encountered many social inequalities which have impacted me. An aspect that has had a huge impact on me and still does today is social class. Social class is a large group of people who rank closely to one another in wealth(property), power, and prestige (Jovel, 10/22/19). I have never personally been proud of the social class I come from because I am considered underclass. I and my family have been on welfare my entire life. My parents unfortunately never got an education due to caring for their family and in Afghanistan education is mainly for those who can afford it. My social class has impacted so many of my personal life chances. One way it has impacted me is that it has made it extremely difficult to attract certain opportunities like participating in a sport or having sources for tutoring. Therefore, my not having the additional resources for my education and my parents not having the knowledge to make use of the resources schools provide led to an unfortunate outcome in my life. I ended up repeating first grade and to this day I still feel embarrassed when I think about this, but I know and understand that it was a blessing in disguise because I could learn the material better and hopefully develop a better understanding. My social class status has also impacted my life chances which are the opportunities for material good, positive living conditions, and favorable opportunities (Jovel, 10/24/19). Due to my parents not having occupations we have always been under Housing and we have never owned a house of our own it has been very difficult because we had an instance about three years ago where the landlord decided that they were going to move into the house we had been renting for years. My parents, siblings, and I were extremely stressed and worried and were expected to find another house in the following three months. The stress led my parents to encounter many health issues and I remember not being able to sleep at times. Thankfully in the end we found another house we could rent. Another social inequality I have faced is regarding my age, Ageism is the discrimination on age (Jovel, 11/07/19). I have dealt with a lot of situations where individuals do not realize I am capable, because they judge my age and how old I look. There was a scene when I used to shadow a Medical Assistant during a medical assisting externship during my high school years a patient came in and my duties were to take the patient’s vitals (blood pressure, temperature, height, and weight). The patient looked at me in a very odd way and told me that I was too young to be working in a clinic and at that moment, I just laughed it off. What this patient didnt realize was the number of sleepless nights I stayed up late sacrificing my sleep to study for the medical assisting course and the knowledge I had. Race and ethnicity have also heavily impacted my life. Race is a group whose inherited physical traits distinguish it from other groups and ethnicity is a group that shares cultural characteristics…ancestry, religion, food, language (Jovel, 10/29/19). There was an instance when I and my grandmother were out in public and we were conversing in our native language and another customer in the aisle out of the blue rudely stated to speak English and that this is America. What she didnt know was that my grandmother did not know how to speak English. The major event that was occurring during this time in society was the presidency of Trump. I have also faced microaggressions which are everyday slights or insults, which communicate negative messages based on marginalized group membership (Jovel, 10/31/19). A physician and I were looking at some X-ray images and I talked about the joint we were looking at and then he replied back oh you did your homework . He assumed I didnt have that certain education and probably didnt realize I was smart enough.
Section 3: Social Institutions
Social institutions are what make up the majority of my life. Education is a major institution in my life and has provided me with many opportunities. From my early childhood years, I have always taken education seriously but that doesnt mean I was knowledgeable. Until my junior year in high school, I started to learn how to study and ace exams because I had failed a majority in the past. I started to realize my own potential and abilities I had in me. During this high school year of mine, I was also enrolled in the MVP program. Therefore, tracking-sorting into programs based on abilities (Jovel, 11/19/19). Attending this program had a huge shift in my life I performed really well in my medical assisting course and was able to go on to complete my internship at a clinic. Another example of tracking in my life would be the time I was selected from two hundred applicants to take part in the Kaiser Permanente Summer Internship LAUNCH (learning about unlimited new careers in healthcare) program in 2017. I was beyond thrilled to have the ability to work in a hospital setting with various medical professionals. I learned so much from this experience and received a lot of support from my mentors. I do believe my social class impacted my education because the Kaiser Permanente Internship program really desired social integration which is inclusion (Jovel, 11/19/19). The social integration they wanted was diversity and to have a group of diverse and underrepresented students and even in the applications income had to be at a certain level. Geographical location also impacted this opportunity because the Kaiser Permanente headquarter is based in Oakland, CA. Marriage is another important institution in my family and culture. Marriage is a social institution that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another (Jovel, 11/14/19). In my culture, if an individual decides they want to get married or their parents decide it is time for their marriage the parents usually arrange their marriage by finding a spouse for them, and sometimes arrangements are made between two sets of parents before the child is even born. It is a lot less common here in the U.S. and other industrialized countries and more common in Afghanistan to have an arranged marriage. The majority of the time marriage happens between the extended family which includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins… (Jovel, 11/14/19). It is conducted between cousins and in my family, a lot of my aunts and uncles are first cousins that got married. Something that is heavily common in regard to authority is patriarchy which is a social system in which men dominate women (Jovel, 11/14/19). An instance that exemplifies this in my life is at family gatherings when the food is put out, men get up to get food first and women wait until they are done and then grab their food. If I were to grab food with the men I would be seen as disrespectful and viewed in a negative way. Despite the women doing all the cooking and cleaning men take food first. My being female does not give me as much authority compared to if I were a male. This usually occurs in other various ceremonies as well it is not just limited to home gatherings. Religion is an institution that gives me a lot of purpose in life. I am Muslim so therefore the religion I practice is Islam and religion is defined as a social institution that establishes a sense of identity and offers a sense of meaning and purpose (Jovel,11/21/19). With Islam, we perform many practices which are rituals centered around things considered sacred (11/21/19). We perform prayers five times a day every day and at a specific time of the day. Prior to praying there is a routine for cleansing the body that must be conducted to perform prayer. The holy day of the week is Friday and I try my best to go to the mosque to perform afternoon prayer there it is definitely a moral community that results from groups beliefs and practices (Jovel, 11/21/19). When all Muslims get together, we feel a sense of belonging and unite in prayer. This community provides a lot of conversations and advice regarding certain circumstances where there is confusion about what is right and wrong in religion. In the Bay Area, I am extremely thankful that there is a large population of Muslims and that we can relate to one another. All in all, religion is something that provides me with peace and serenity and when times get tough for me I believe there is something greater for me and that with trust and faith things will ease up. Religion is still something that I practice every day and I usually do so at home.
Section 4: Theoretical Perspectives
The theoretical perspectives that guided my analysis in this paper were conflict theory and functional analysis. Conflict Theory is society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for resources (Henslin, 1.4). This perspective was useful in analyzing my life experiences because I have not had equal chances to pursue certain goals due to inequalities in regard to my social location. There are inequalities in systems, and I have had to compete for opportunities that I have wanted. Due to me also being a part of a minority group, we tend to face inequalities more often. The last perspective that really guided my analysis in the paper is functional analysis. Functional analysis is that society is a whole unit made up of interrelated parts that work together (Henslin, 1.4). I feel that despite facing many inequalities because of my position in society I have also been granted many opportunities to excel and do well. An example would be the Kaiser program their main goal was to diversify the program. Another instance would be regarding my job now which is a medical assistant, I am a medical assistant in a chiropractic clinic, and my colleague had referred me, and I eventually got hired. Ultimately, viewing my life I understand the reason behind certain situations that took place. Those difficult moments taught me and so if I encounter a situation similar to it again, I will know how to handle it better. That my role in society benefits society as a whole and if I dont perform my duties as a student or a medical assistant it disrupts the environment around me and prevents my peers from completing their work as well.
In conclusion, this assignment has shifted my perspective and how I view my life experiences. For instance, my personal experience as of now being a full-time college student and a part-time Medical Assistant is connected to the state of higher education because it is a way of demonstrating that an individual can do it all and that I am contributing to the well-being of the patients I care for in the clinic and future patients and that I am also getting educated and applying my education to everyday life situations. That my experience will help me accelerate greater and aid in locating solutions faster and more efficiently. No one should ever limit themselves by what they are born into. Change and social mobility are absolutely possible. Sociology definitely highlighted the effects of society on my life experiences.
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