My Impression of Cluture and Ethnicity

My impression of culture and ethinicity growing up was pretty much like any other white, female, American. I didn't have too many traditions growing up in my family except for the birthday parties or holiday gatherings where everyone sat down to eat chicken paprikash and spaetzle. I was raised in north Stamford and had little knowings of people being different than me. My parents always had friends over who were different than us and I would play with their kids and we never judged eachother. When you're little you don't see people as different colors or not coming from the same background as you. Everyone is equal when you're a kid. In preschool we all played together and all the way through middle school everyone was able to get along. It wasn't until high school that people started to branch of and stick to hanging out with people that they had the most in common with. I'm not saying that I wouldn't associate with people who weren't white with brown hair and blue eyes, or the girl with red hair wouldn't talk to anyone that didn't have red hair, but for the majority everyone stuck to hanging out with people that they had the most in common with from where they came from or what they believed in. Mature high schoolers would branch off AT LEAST in school but some wouldn't even look at someone they thought wasn't worthy of their time. Personally, I never stuck to hanging out with one "group" of people. My friends were always scrambled, even from different schools and if I were to throw a party no one would even really know anyone else. I think it's because thinking back on my morals that my parents set in me growing up and the fact that they never told me that one person was different than the other had a huge impact on the way I chose my friends. My parents never told me that anyone was any different than the other and that's what I plan on doing with my kids as well.

(Journal # 1) Pop Culture for Composition

Cars, clothes, fashion, designers, art, movies, music, life today... You could go up to anyone on the street and ask them what they think the latest or hottest trend is in one of those topics and I bet a million dollars they could give you a straight answer being their opinion as to what they believe is the "it" thing. That's pop culture. As said in Mirror on America, pop culture studies are just that - popular. It's a great theme for composition and no one can deny that. There's nothing better than writing about what's a "hit" today. Everyone has opinions and pop culture is easily a top of the charts opinionated subject. However, I think some people may over analyze it too much because in the book Mirror on America it is said that someone has their Ph.D in Pretty in Pink... I'm not sure if you can go very far in your career with that. An opinion is a very valued thing for everyone to have and writing about pop culture is the simplest way of standing your ground for legalization for example.