Stereotype hurts.

I took Sociology 1 in last year's fall quarter, I have learned something very important, and that was about stereotypes. We, human beings, tend to judge or categorize people by their ethnicities or skin colors. I have a personal experience of being stereotyped by other people. I am an Asian who is not good at math or sciences. I get quite uncomfortable when people ask me if I'm a math major or economics major because I am a person with black hair, brown eyes and yellow skin. Because of my outlook, I am being labeled as someone that I'm not. Americans tend to view Asians as intelligent diligent people. I must admit there are many hardworking Asians, but not only Asians, there are numerous people from different ethnicities who are hardworking too. 

As a child, my mother always taught me never to judge others. Judging an individual by his/her skin color or ethnic group is very wrong, extremely demeaning and not fair for the person. For example, after 911, Americans had and still have a phobia towards Middle=Eastern people and Muslims because the terrorists belonged these two categories. From then onwards, many Middle-Eastern people and Islam followers were discriminated. People don't realize that stereotyping hurts the person. Stereotyping does not view a person as an individual but as a member of a certain category. Therefore, the person who is being judged on due to his/her outlook is not respected. If we could stop and prevent stereotyping from happening in the future, everybody would be equal, the world would be a better place. 

Teenage Blues

Anthony Brandt has once said, "Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family." I was brought up in a family with reserved Asian parents. My father always told me I should not be bothered by my insufficient playtime because I should aim for the highest. I knew what I wanted - to be my parents' successful daughter. 

   As my adolescent journey began, I started to have a mind of my own. I started to rebel by telling my parents off and slacking off in my schoolwork. Because of my insubordinate behavior and terrible academic performance, my parents sent me to a boarding school in London, hoping I would have a better change in a conservative environment. Ironically, I went the other way. Not only I did not make any improvements, I also started to pick up bad habits. I was constantly sent to the deputy principal's office to explain my poor manners. I was infamous for being the troublemaker in the school. 

   I was sick of everything in my life; i came up with a plan. On a hot July night in Hong Kong, I packed my bags and I walked out of my father's household. I was going to forget everything in the past and start a new life.

I started my new life. To pay off my living expenses, I worked as a waitress in the Chinese café. The Chinese café industry was very demanding and complicated. To prevent others from taking advantage of my young age, I learned to protect myself by acting roughly. The working hours were long; the payment was meager.

A few months later, I received news from my father that my mother was not feeling well, I felt very guilty. I knew I had caused her enough misery with my abominable behavior. Despite I had my pride; I went home and asked for her forgiveness. To make my mother happier, I eventually moved back home. 

I still have disagreements with my parents at times, but I know they would never forsake me for the wrong decisions I have made. I have learned that a family is a family, and will always be a family. Just as my father had always said, "the family is one's last resort." 

diagnostic essay

Many writers are brilliant intellectuals because they portray their thoughts in an organized manner along with creativity. Unlike them, I see myself at lost when I write. I struggle, as I don’t know how to put my thoughts into written letters because like shooting stars, my mind is full of short-lived ideas. It takes me a very long time to group my thoughts into an organized manner because my mind is always in a mess. I always don’t know how to start my introduction due to the fact that I to tend to worry my writing would bore my audience. Perhaps I worry too much when I write therefore I get hindered a lot.

 

As a thinker who is living in a diverse community with numerous intelligent philosophers and writes, I feel that my insignificant beliefs and thoughts forgotten easily by this competitive fast-paced society. Having to be brought up in a traditional Asian family environment while being sent to an international school has put me into an awkward situation where I can’t my belongings.  To be educated in a so-called open-minded “western environment” while being taught to have reserved Asian values, I feel discomforted because the people from my race view me as an Asian whose thoughts are whitewashed while the Americans view me merely a person with black hair, brown eyes and yellow skin. But whatever people would see me as, I am determined to prove to them and myself that I will find the balance between the open-minded western thinking and the conventional Asian culture.

 

 

 

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