I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday, By Leslie Bell

Yet, if all the people are shaped by their environment, everyone would end up the same and not have distinct uniquenesses that differ from other people. In order to still keep one’s individuality and remain separate from his or her peers and relations, a person should not allow what other people think of him influence how he thinks of himself. One example is Sonia

The many temptations of life bring people to act differently through personality changes. Temptation is a large topic found in “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins. For example, when visiting her father, Kristina was tempted to drink, smoke, and take

When the environment is disturbed, people are greatly affected, and this can cause serious damage to human and living beings. The proper utilization of these resources helps to control environmental pollution and can help for establishing clean and healthy environment. I will work with this committee to conserve the environment in the state of Texas and in the whole country.

A lot of people in the world struggle with self-identity and understanding who they are, and the people and events around them in their daily life provide a sort of fill-in for the gap that exists inside of them, whether it’s in the form of jealousy or admiration. Instead of relying on themselves and making an impact on the world based on who they are themselves, these people often undermine their own identity and sabotage their lives and those around them by focusing on, obsessing over, and essentially depending on other things that only appear to be a part of them. In the novel A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles, brings up this subject of the risk of dependency on self-identity through the main character and protagonist, Gene, and

Every individual has a unique and distinct personality that allows them to experience the world in their own way. However, despite our differences, people often share similar episodes with other members of society, which would imply that the social or physical environment around us has a powerful effect on the perceptions humans create. With this in mind, it is important to understand that the awareness of our environment is often dictated by biases comparable to an author writing his own story. This concept is first explored in Malcolm Gladwell’s, “The Power of Context”, where the author discusses how the social environment that a person comes from plays an essential role in shaping their behavior. Tim O’Brien offers a different perspective

Our environment is the most important thing for us to be concerned with, without an environment we have nothing and are nothing. It is important for everyone to know the ways to help our environment and keep us all healthy. Today I am

Moreover, Frederickson goes further in her research, claiming that love itself may reshape an individual. That is why she claims, “love can affect you so deeply that it reshapes you from the inside out and by doing so alters your destiny for further loving moments” (Frederickson, 121). The truth is that in order to become an individual, a person needs to communicate and interact with other people and the world around. People often agree that it is mainly communication with families and friends that shape person’s character and individuality. Every interaction that occurs in person’s daily life strongly affects people’s characters and their vision of the world. That is why communication or interaction with people may be viewed as one of the main things that shapes people’s identity.

The environment influences many of the choices we make in life. How we life our life and certain standards we have are sometimes caused or influenced by the environment. It determines choices we make in our sexuality as well as choices we make to build upon our happiness. Many of the activities we engage in the early years can sometimes affect our lives throughout late adulthood. Some of these same environmental influences are carried down generation after generation.

The stress of being alone is a weight that hangs on the shoulders of many. Team sports are reassuring; there is a losing team and a winning team, not a losing player and a winning player. Conformity breeds comfort that leads to complacency, but individualism is different. Individualism is uncomfortable because it forces a person to grow- it forces a person to accept his situation in life and make the best out of it. Though conformity and aspirations for a sense of belonging have their place in our society today, the damaging expectations that conformity is compulsory do not. In their short stories “Shooting an Elephant” and “The Things We Knew When the House Caught Fire,” George Orwell and David Drury purport that societal expectations of conformity harmfully negate individualism.

It is common for humans to develop coping mechanisms by building a defense mechanism to deal and surpass traumatic events. These mechanisms tend to manipulate specific actions to satisfy and please our needs in order to make us happy. Martha Stout’s essay, “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday”, and Daniel Gilbert’s essay “Immune to Reality”, describes how one augments a defense mechanism; however in their respective essays each one of them discusses the affects it has upon human behavior. Often times, culture and one’s environment such biological and interpretative elements can affect the daily life of an individual as they think, percept and act.

An individual possessing unique attributes and characteristics is what makes up that person's identity. In Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, citizens of a seemingly utopian society lack both an identity and individuality. Every person in this society was stripped of their individuality, in order to maintain and preserve the ideal community. Huxley’s novel emphasizes the importance or groups and communities as oppose to embracing the differences of what it means to be an individual.

Building an identity often involves forming a unique personality that abides by the need for affiliation, which is a sense of belonging within a community. Thus, sociocultural norms often dictate how a person ought to act, while at the same time discouraging out of the box mental processes. This leads to citizens assimilating to the culture in place, which leads to a socially determined state of normality. Leslie Bell explores the need for affiliation concept by examining female sexual activity in her book, “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom.” In her book she details the lives of females who struggle to build a sexual identity because of their newfound freedom in their early to mid-twenties. The conflict stems from male created social expectations that act as pathway for women to follow. Quite simply, women are faced with choosing either celibacy or hooking up. This leads into Martha Stout’s essay, “When I woke up Tuesday Morning it Was Friday”, where she discusses mental health, and the impact of traumatic experiences. Furthermore, the author focuses on the ability humans have to disassociate, or withdraw from reality, and argues that because so many people use this tactic, then perhaps the idea of normalcy needs to be questioned. This connects back to Leslie Bell, where she argues that women need to liberate themselves from the black and white, either or, patterns of thinking to progress in society. In other words, Bell

Each and every day, a multiple array of new discoveries come into existence, enriching and altering the life of mankind substantially. Amongst these, particular discoveries possess the ability to offer new understandings and renewed perceptions of ourselves and others. Recognizing your own unique individuality, and finding oneself, is a form of discovery that is found through the journey of life. Within the core of every human being lies a compelling urge for change, and for growth into a deeper and richer state of existence. This concept is evident considerably, in the well known, 2006, romantic comedy The Holiday, and the iconic, best seller- The Motorcycle Diaries. In each of these texts, specific individuals are shaped significantly as a result of sudden, unexpected, confronting, provocative, meaningful, and most importantly, transformative breakthroughs with both their environment, and other individuals they encounter.

These consequences can potentially affect human populations, but the environment can also be affected on a local or regional level.

Man is a product of the culture in which he is born and brought up. For the same reason, no one can negate the influence of the society in forming one’s personality. I am well aware of the fact that my views, thoughts, and attitude have been shaped by the society I live in; hence, any attempt to sketch my personal experiences would be incomplete without referring to the part played by my surroundings. Throughout my life, I have paid utmost importance to initiating and maintaining interpersonal relationships with others. I had to face varied situations out there, both joyous and depressing. However, each instance was a great lesson for me to learn several things about my practical life – I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say that I have learned more outside the four walls of my classroom than within them. My autobiography is closely associated with my social connections including my experiences with my family, educational institution, and the larger society I reside within.