3 posts tagged “sociology”
I haven't updated this thing in a long time, but I'm happy to report it's because I've been so busy and not because I had a lack of things to write about. I really meant to write a blog/journal entry like this after spring quarter and give everyone an update after I finished my first year at UCLA, but I haven't had much time to just sit in front of a computer since then so now you get my input on my first year AND summer session at UCLA.
This year has been the most exciting one in my life, so far. I had a roommate other than my older sister for the first time, and even sharing a room with my sister hasn't happened since I was 8 or 9, so that was new I guess. I guess you could say I moved out of the house, technically, but now that it's summer I don't have my own place anymore so I don't think it counts. I guess it's your call, as my reader, to make.
As far as academics, I learned more in this year than I've learned in any other year and that's probably because I'm finally out of community college. I'm really happy I went to UCLA and it was really reassuring to find out I'm able to keep up with the pace of a four-year, especially UCLA. At the beginning of spring quarter I got an internship at the Daily Bruin as a copy editor. I worked there for five or six weeks, I can't really remember, but in any case I haven't been there for long but I would say that this is the first time I'm learning something that is actually valuable in the job market. Sorry John Wooden Center, but I don't think the opportunity you gave me to fold towels will jump out on my resume. So anyway, I'm very happy I got that internship and I hope to continue copy editing when I get back from NY. I'm hoping I can get a job that's somewhere in the same vein as editing after I graduate, because I'd really rather not continue doing anything Sociology-related.
Now, I'm sitting in a crappy dorm room in New York on a UCLA Travel Study program for Sociology. The program ends this Thursday and I fly home on Saturday. It's been a fun trip, but I will be sooo happy to come back. Mostly I'm excited to come back because I miss Shaun, but also I hate the filthy room I live in, I don't like being able to eat for free only between the hours of 7:30am and 8pm Monday through Friday, I'm ready to have a break from school, and also, I'm broke. That probably made it sound a lot worse than it actually is, because I have had good times here as well. I love that I'm in a city where I can walk around and that there's an actual night life here. I like the wide variety of restaurants they have, even though I can't afford a lot of them. I also really like that I knocked out 14 units in four weeks and it was incredibly easy. It has been worth it, but it'll be nice to be back home.
After this program, I'll be finished with my degree after two more quarters. I'm not anxious about being released into the "real world" at the moment, but maybe it'll hit later. I guess it'll suck to not having summer, spring, or winter breaks but it'll also be really nice to not have stacks and stacks of reading to do and pointless papers to write. I'll need to get a job pretty soon because my student loan payments will be due and I'll have to support my penniless boyfriend who will (possibly) be in med school.
I hope that if you actually read this entire thing you enjoyed it, have a good rest of the summer everybody!
"Objectively classifiable conditions of existence (class of conditioning) and position in structure of conditions of existence (a structuring structure)" develops into "Habitus 1, a structuring structure and a structured structure."
I hate being away from close friends for long periods of time. Vox, however, is not a close friend. It's a website and I'm okay with not visiting a website for a long time.
I sit here in my apartment at about 3 in the morning chipping away at a paper that I honestly doubt is enough to resurrect my grade in this stupid, dry, Sociology class. Ok so, grades. Let's talk about those. My grades are definitely not where I'd like them to be and if they are any indication of the lifestyle I'll have when I'm out of school, I'll be very disappointed with my life. I don't think grades will play that big of a role in MOST cases, except obviously they have a lot to do with grad school so if that's what your future holds well I guess grades should probably be pretty important to you. I don't think grad school is for me. I have a fatty student loan to pay off, though, so I need to figure out some way to achieve my ideal lifestyle without relying on my stellar student success. Pierre Bordieu, who I am reading in one of my classes right now, identifies some different kinds of capital that can lead to success like cultural capital, social capital, economic capital, blah blah blah. So I'll have to find some way to utilize other forms of capital available to me to reach my goal... my goal which right now is just paying off my student loan. This blog is getting boring quickly. Moving on.
SO. When I was a little kid, there were foods that I decided I didn't like for whatever reason that made sense to me at the time. They included but were not limited to: breakfast burritos, bell peppers, Italian dressing, the crusts of bread, bananas, and any form of sushi. I still don't like bell peppers, mainly I don't like the smell, but I also don't like the taste. I still find Italian dressing unappetizing, but I could probably eat it, but everything else I've learned that I actually like. For example, breakfast burritos. I think this stemmed from my "I hate scrambled eggs" phase which I went through because once I threw up after eating scrambled eggs (thanks for the salmonella, Mom). In any case, I'm over it now. I'm eating crusts of bread now just for the sake of convenience. I now know they will not give me the curly hair I've always wanted and that my parents told me that only to mock me later, but now it's just a hassle to take the crust off. Bananas I can't remember why I didn't like them, but one day I ate one and realized it was delicious. End of story. My family probably remembers one infamous visit to a Japanese restaurant when my grandma kept ordering more and more food for me because I didn't like a single thing they gave me except for miso soup, at last. I think my taste buds just changed or something because I suddenly don't find it disgusting anymore.
My downward spiral into introspection continues. I still really love ketchup, that will never change.
There are more interesting things I could write about. I have a real live boyfriend now, for one. It's been official since Valentine's Day (because we're cute like that), so it's new and I don't know how many people have heard by now. Probably all of my Vox friends by now, but whatever, I'm telling you now. His name is Shaun, and we both work at the gym so that's where we met. He's half Arab, half white, about 6 feet tall, 150lbs and has fantastic cheekbones. I have to interrupt the pointlessness of this blog to say that I think he's incredible.
It's been half a hour and I think it's time for me to get back to my paper. Maybe I'll write a better post later. Maybe I won't.
