Final Post

Who am I? 

When first posed with this question, this was my response: 

Hi guys, I'm Peyton.  I'm 16 and I'm a senior.  Technically, I should be a junior, but I'm not, so it is what it is.  I like to think I am a little funny, but I'm probably wrong.  Oh, well.  Also, I am a giant nerd.  I love school, I love learning, I love science, math, and history.  I'm probably the biggest dork about school you'll ever meet.  My favorite classes I've ever taken are APUSH and AP Physics, and I want to be a physics major in college, so if that doesn't indicate to you what a nerd I am, I don't know what will.  Aside from being a giant loser, here are some other things I enjoy:

• The color purple.
• Reading basically any book
• Watching movies, except action/super-hero/alien/etc. movies.  I don't like those.
• Food.  Except cheese.  Cheese is gross. 
• T.V.  I love How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, American Horror Story, and I'll admit to keeping up with the Kardashians
• I like to get stuff.  I don't like to shop, I just like receiving the items.  Online shopping is my savior.  
• Being alone.  I'm the ultimate introvert. 
• Sweaters.  I wear think wool sweaters year round, which is a big problem in the summer.  But I like to be cozy.
• A mixture of alternative and pop music, because I'm one big contradiction.  
• That's all I can think of. 

     I consider my self to be incredibly stubborn and completely set in my ways.  Any attempt to get me to try something I haven't decided to do myself will probably fail.  I like to think I'm a nice person, and that I'm willing to help anyone or give anyone a chance.  
     The biggest influences in my life have to be my family, I almost always take their advice and rely on their support in anything I do.  I also try to make sure that I myself am one of the biggest influences in my decision making, because I don't like to do things just because other people tell me to.  
     My goals in life are to major in science, specifically physics, in college, and get a Bachelor of Science degree.  After college, I want to pursue a PhD in whatever science I end up liking the best, and work as a research scientist.  
     So, that's basically it about me, or at least all I can think of right now.  

This is my response now: 

I am a product of my surroundings.  At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to answer the same question.  I gave a generic overview of myself-what I like to watch on TV and eat.  But, after a semester of sociology, I now see myself in a different light.  I see myself as the offspring of the society I was raised in.  I can now see the effects of my culture, race, nurture in how I behave and how I view the worlds.  I can see the way the media and the rest of society has influenced the way I am, why I like the things that I listed in my first post.  I no longer define myself by what I like and dislike, but by what has shaped my existence.  I know now that I like what I like because I am a white, upper-middle class, teenage, American, suburban girl.  Before, when I was asked who I am, I knew what I was.  Now, because of sociology, I know why I am.