Personal Narrative: Breaking The Social Norm

To start off with, I spent a while specifically twenty-five minutes in the restrooms at Arrowhead Mall. I went on a Friday evening when I knew there would be quite a lot of people. The age range varied from toddlers to elderly women, but for the experiment I made sure to not talk to the children because that would be extremely odd. One of the individual I asked was a woman in her late twenties; I only knew the age range because my friend was “washing” her hands and texting me. I started each conversation off,

Of course the norm for me is that of any citizen living in zone three.

I personally found trying to find a single “Social Norm” to break challenging so I chose to do two instead. The first was to end my phone calls with I love you, and to talk to a stranger in the bathroom stall next to my own. Which is how I confessed my undying love to a coworker. Working at a casino, employees have to call surveillance for anytime they move around with money or have to be escorted to the vault. I’m a pretty lively person but going into work, I started to get this bashful nature about myself especially the closer it came to performing both of the social norms I gave myself to break.

I chose to break the norm of either smiling at strangers or giving them a neutral look when you make eye contact. I decided to give every stranger I passed a confused look like they had just spoken to me in another language. I must admit, this made me feel a bit goofy. I was on the fence as to whether or not to do this in the first place but I decided I just had to. The responses I received were quite comical. A few people asked if I was alright, and one person even asked if I had a problem with them.

I plan to improve this disposition by having boundaries and limits. It does not matter if the client shares the same cultural beliefs from me, I have a lot of compassion and go an extra mile to help them. I get attach with clients right away because I see a connection with them. I have noticed that clients take advantage of my empathy. I need to work on how to understand my clients but also have limits with them so they will not take advantage of my kindness.

“Who thought the baptism water would be as cold as an ice bath?” Much like anyone growing up in Las Vegas, or otherwise known as “Sin City,” we have always been surrounded by people from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Those people are commonly known as “Mormons.” Boy, let me tell you, there are Mormons everywhere in Vegas! There was always something about them that made me interested. There was a light as bright as the sun that always shined from them. They always had a smile on their face, from ear to ear and once you start talking to them I found that they are the nicest people. I then got to know and started hanging out with the Mormons. I then became interested with the religion aspect.

It was the last inning, the count was two balls and two strikes with two outs. Our catcher calls a curveball, I move three steps to my right. Alex is in the stretch, he starts his motion towards home, the runner on first breaks for second base. The pitch is delivered and the ball is hit directly up the middle and over the pitcher’s head, coming from shortstop, I break to my left, I am about to catch the ball when I glance at the runner. He was sliding right into me, I caught the ball, jumped up, and threw the ball while in mid-air. It was a perfect throw, right to the first baseman’s chest. That was it, the game was over, we had just beaten the number one team in the country to advance to the world series! We all threw

Have you ever been so desperate for something that you redevelop your motive in its entirety? Throughout my life I’ve found myself placed in this frightening situation multiple times; the most confusing of which would be what I’ve endured this year. People in their 20s have it rough anyway. We’re old enough to feel like we’re supposed to know what we’re doing, yet young enough to be clueless and it still be acceptable; then there’s those of us who think we’ve got it all figured out only to be proven tremendously wrong. I have learned, however, that being tremendously wrong can lead you right where you need to be.

someone. One of the hardest responsibilities I've ever had to take on, was when I had to babysit, Brennan, my little brother. I thought I would not do a good job, but I knew it was something I had to learn how to do. Also, when I babysat my brother, I felt that it would help my parents if I knew how to take care of him. Although I was very nervous, I told my parents that I would babysit my little brother. Something that I didn't know, was that I was learning a lot about taking responsibility for things in life. It was a very interesting learning experience for me.

I unzipped my coat as I stepped into the warm basement. I crinkle my nose as the bitter smell of alcohol hits it. I feel like I should be used to it by now, I go to concerts at least once a month. We walk over to the small table overflowing with merchandise. It’s a tradition to by the opening bands CD.

Have you tried and failed to get together with a girl or guy? Well this roller-coaster of a story will surely get you to empathize or sympathize with me, or maybe if it is that big of a failure to you, both.

In my three years of being here I’ve learned so much. Managing time is key. In the beginning I was pretty good at it but as I got better I’ve learned how to better my time. Really in my opinion you can’t teach someone maybe to some extent you can but not really. It has to do with experience with time management you need to fail once or twice before understanding the importance and how much it really does help. In life I’ve always had an easy time with managing my time so this wasn’t much of an issue with me. My career goals have been magnified since being here, realizing that what I want to do in life might actually be my reality. In this day and age not many people can say that. Through the Ferris classes I took here I was able to save fifteen thousand

Changes that I have made lately include leaving my past job that I was comfortable in, changing my sleep schedule around, and working to relax more. When I first started thinking of making a career change, I was scared I would not find another staff that I enjoyed working with and a manager as sweet as mine. I was scared of change for fear of the unknown. Another change I made lately was my sleep schedule. I was tired and cranky, and not getting enough sleep. I started making a sleep schedule and sticking to going to bed earlier and waking up at a certain time each day to regulate my sleep. This has helped improve my mood and increased my energy. Lastly, I am working on ways to relax and wind down after a long day.

Have you ever had a thought in your mind where it comes out of nowhere and hits you like a freight train? An idea so amazing that you’d stop at nothing to make it happen. A couple weeks ago we started a group project in English class called “Social Monsters”. Each group had to choose a “monster” that plagued the world today from a disturbing alphabet video. My group, me, Harvey and Ben, choose world hunger as our monster.

Oh, to see what I wish I didn’t. To see an image staring back at me that I don’t identify with. To long to be accepted, and wonder if ever such a thing could happen. For now, all I can do is move on and pursue something to challenge the “norm”. I suppose it’s time to go forth and spread ideas that no longer require there to be a fear of ourselves. I guess it’s about time for me to do this on my own, even though I am at the ripe age of 62.