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The sociological imagination is the notion that allows a person to understand the greater picture of oneself and one’s role in society. In this assignment, I will examine my own life from a sociologist perspective. I will look at my position as an individual in society and explain how sociological imagination has shaped made me into the person that I have become today. In order to effectively due to this, I must provide you with my background. At the age of eight years old my parents divorced, my father was awarded custody.
Soon after this he was injured in an accident and was not able to care of me so I was sent to live with my grandparents. The reason I had to live with grandparents was that after their divorce my mother left and I have never seen her since. So she was never there for me and my dad even after he recovered from his injuries decided that it was best for me to just stay with my grandparents. My grandparents were both retired and on disability already and therefore in a position to take care of me. Now the drawback to this was they did not have a lot of money, but they tried their best to give me everything I needed.
The reason I believe telling you this is important is that I believe that because of this I have become the person I am today. I never had a lot when I was a kid and really appreciated the things I did get. When I was a child I took care of my things because I knew that my grandparents had worked hard to make sure I got what I did get and would not be in a position to replace them. Also because of my parent’s divorce I became a very independent person. At this time in society this was becoming more of the norm than the exception.
More and more children were coming from broken homes, and these children had to rely on themselves more and more. I personally have never relied on anyone for anything, and I believe that a person is responsible for themselves and do not need to rely on anyone else for their needs. As soon as I was able to work I got my first job and have been working ever since this way I could supply my needs myself thus not having to rely on someone else. If I want something I believe that I have to work hard for it and earn it.
Now when writing this paper I realized some drawbacks to this upbringing, I realized that as person I tend to withdrawn and isolated. I have a hard time letting people getting close to me and tend not to trust anyone. I believe this as a result of the fact that in my life both my parents have never been there for me. I have always had to rely on myself thus making it hard to let anyone get close to me. Today I have a wonderful wife and two great boys, yet it took a long time for me to trust and let my wife in, and still sometimes I still have a hard time sharing my feelings and problems with her.
I still tend to internalize my problems and keep them to myself and try to work these issues out by myself. Now I know it sounds like a lot of negatives to this upbringing but I also see a lot of positives. I have become a strong independent person that has the ability to make my own decisions, I am not a follower if I don’t wish to do something I have to ability to say no and do what I want I am not a follower. Another positive is with my children, I know how it feels to be let down by your parents and I have made sure that my kids know that I will always been there for them no matter what.
My kids already know that dad will be there for them. I think one problem with society today is that the people rely too much on someone else to take care of their needs, i. e. the government. People need to be responsible for themselves, work hard and earn what they get. In the American culture people rely too much on others to get their needs meet. This is just my opinion, but I believe that my upbringing and social factors is what has shaped me into the person I am today.