What I Learned About My Life

This entry is about a woman on a journey to discover her religion. The author felt that she fell behind the religion department, compared to her friends that already had a set religion given to them by their parents. She discusses how she was afraid she would never find a religion that will suit her. She started researching churches and religions to find one that fit her beliefs and values. She believes that you shouldn’t do things out of revenge and that you should act on things you notice needs to be done. After visiting numerous churches, she is left her faithless and different perceptions on religion. In the end, she discovered her religion is Deity, a Christian religion that means to live a decent life that appeasing to the higher power. I found that this entry is related to me as well because I grew up with a strict set of beliefs my dad enforced on me. Growing up, I didn’t have the opportunity to live out my beliefs because of Apostolic beliefs of my dad. Being Apostolic, means that girls aren’t allowed to wear pants, makeup, cut their hair, wear skirts above the knee, wear hair extensions; unless bald, and listen to music that isn’t gospel. Additionally, you can’t work on Sundays, not allowed to have Christmas trees or seasonal decorations, girls have to place a prayer cloth over their head during service, boys can’t have their heads covered in church and boys can’t have long hair.

James Fowler developed his stages of faith after conduction in-depth interviews of 359 people. The sample subjects were predominately white, with equal numbers of males and females and included a wide range of ages, from three and a half to 84 years old. Fowler’s interviews consisted of 30 plus questions regarding the subject’s life experiences, relationships, values, commitments and religion. After analyzing the responses, Fowler placed each subject in one of six faith stages. The responses indicated that as the subject’s age increased, so did their stage of faith (Hutchison, 2015).

I can remember sitting in class, feeling eyes burning through me, dodging inquisitive glances from all sides, and anxiously awaiting the bell to ring for lunchtime. As most people know, lunch is the most dreaded part of the first day at a new school. First day of school memories are still fairly vivid for me; my father was in the JAG corps in the Army and my family moved with biannual regularity. In fact, I even attended three different high schools. While this may seem highly undesirable to some, I learned an incredible amount about myself, the world, and other people through moving that I may never have learned otherwise. What I have learned about myself and the world will without a doubt contribute to my success in life and even law

Being a woman was always the largest piece of my identity. I focused my attention the oppression that comes with identifying as a woman. I resisted against the ideals of patriarchy and spent time in college starting a club that promoted and supported women in business fields. However, I never stopped to think about the intersection of my identities and how my other identities

She proclaims, “–Know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths,” (Lorde 112). Lorde, herself is a black lesbian feminist, and calls for action that liberation can occur when all voices are included, and when differences are embraced, not only tolerated. She asserts, “As women, we have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change. Without community there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression. But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist,” (Lorde 112). Not participating is ignoring the differences and acknowledges replicating systems of power and oppression that feminism claims to be working against. People are enabled to speak up for themselves, because there are others to listen when needed. Working together with people who have similar issues are more prone to create change, because it involves more motivation and participation. Those involved are not just part of the change but are the reason for the change, which makes it

As Audre Lorde discusses in her paper “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” racial and cultural experiences should not be other from gendered experiences. We must “recognize differences among women who are our equals...and use each others’ difference to enrich our visions and our joint struggles” (Lorde). My specific experiences of gender hierarchy in the household and parental controlled sexuality are unique to my racial, cultural, sexual, and socioeconomic background. However, they are still universal to many groups of women in that they lend to our society’s construction of gender roles and expectations. The aggregate personal experiences of women from all backgrounds collectively reinforce overarching gender roles. In recognizing that these experiences are universal, we can learn to break down gender boundaries and give women the control to define their own

Audre Lorde talks in her essay how women, especially black women in our society are get treated lesser based on their age, race, class and sexual preferences. She talks how white females take the over hand because their voices are more dominant while other women from other culture are getting ignored and have nothing to say, they simply ignore the differences. She also states that the If you not mainstream you worth less than anyone else. But it’s not only white vs black, in the black community, black females are treated powerless and have the lowest salaries. She made her own experiences in being classified and judged, Lorde herself is a black female lesbian who had difficulties in life of what she is. Based on magazines, TV or social media

This module six is an interesting and controversial one in the sense that it touches so many issues surrounded feminism. Reflecting on group discussions, class discussions, readings, and audio lecture, I establish there is an enormous correlation between being a woman and LGBTQ in the sense that both are experiencing intersectionality discrimination in the community. What does it mean when the tools of a racist patriarchy are used to examine the fruits of that same patriarchy? It means that only the most narrow perimeters of change are possible and allowable (Lorde, 2001, p.89). What this avowal signifies is that being a black woman or LGBTQ minority member, it will be extremely challenging to defy the oppression encountered by these groups and if at all, they grant them any audience of modification it will be a very microscopic change. Indeed Lorde is very much correct with her statement. However, acceptance of women equalling to men and the acceptance of LGBTQ is still ongoing issues and controversial one in the community. Fish (2008) argues that many literatures had depicted the LGB as ‘partial citizens’(as cited in Richardson, 1998, p.88); as moral, social, and political aliens’ with ‘second class’ citizenship (as cited in Seidman, 2005, pp. 225-245). Again, there is no differential treatment of oppression between black woman and LGBTQ. Consequently, they both experience similar discrimination and oppression. Examining feminism from anti-oppressive lens should be

I’ve been a Catholic from the start; born and raised in a Catholic family. I went to church every week, learned the prayers, and every so often I even read the readings in front of the entire church. This was something constant in my life, a routine that was like a habit; I couldn’t stop. My parents have instilled in me that this is something that could only be beneficial for me. However, it was inevitable for me to wonder. I was handed my beliefs, and I took possession of it, whether I liked it or not. I actually didn’t get the proper opportunity to decide if it was what I wanted to do. With not having much to do with it, I put my bad thoughts aside and continued on with life.

When I am prompted with the question “what are you,” many responses instantly come to mind; female, daughter, sister, girlfriend, student, friend, etc. The one component of my identity that I hold higher than any of the aforementioned however, is Catholic. I am a fully practicing and devout Catholic. I place my faith above all else and it shapes the other factors of my identity. I’m passionate about my relationships with my family & friends, helping the most vulnerable, including the homeless, elderly, unborn children, and animals, and giving back with my talents. My zeal for all of these parts of my life stem from my devotion to my faith and desire to follow it as closely as possible. It can be, however, a difficult time to have such traditional

As I reflect on the “Who Are You? Document” and my Self-Knowledge Survey, I cannot help but think about my past and all things that have led me to this point. I was raised in a very religious household. My father was a pastor and we spent most of our time at church or in bible studies. When I was much younger, this excited me. I greatly enjoyed being a part of the worship services, praying before meals, and our religious traditions around the holidays. My parents protected me from the realities associated with life outside of the church, but as I grew older, I would acquire small tastes of the realities of life outside of religion and over time, I grew bitter at my family for “protecting” me from things that my religion taught were bad, but

Growing up in a household with parents of two different religious backgrounds has contributed to my identity and continues to act as an important factor in what defines me as a person. My mom was raised as a Lutheran Christian, and my dad was raised as Jewish. As a child, sharing this information with my peers around the holiday season made me quickly grow accustomed to hearing, “wow, so that means you get, like, double the presents!” Even though this may be true, coming from a religiously diverse family impacts my life in ways much more significant than just “double the presents.” It has provided me with different experiences to learn about both faiths and to gain a better understanding of how certain beliefs compare and contrast.Since a picture

The gender binary describes a western social construct in which people are categorized based on gender; depending on the anatomy of an individual they are deemed either male or female and are thus expected to exhibit a feminine or masculine personality. As a social construct birthed in the western world, the intention of the gender binary is to create an understanding of the different individuals in our society in a way that discriminates against those considered female, those that do not identify with the binary or do not identify with the gender they are assigned at birth, and those that experience same-sex attraction. When considering the gender binary as a system of oppression, it is essential that one considers other institutions that oppress people – particularly ones in the west—to avoid a reductionist approach to the discrimination directly associated with the gender binary. To properly understand the gender binary, it is important to keep in mind that it was created to categorize people, while also working with and maintaining other systems of oppression as one itself.

The first life lesson I had learnt from the speech of Dr Shah Rukh Khan is we should be bold in life. Life may not as easy as we think, there may be many difficulties. In order to overcome our diffculties and fears, we have to be brave when we deal with it. If we live in fear, everything will go wrong and we will not succeed. So, we should not let our fears become the obstacles that hinder our success, instead we should convert our fears and make it as our courage to step up for ourselves in order to become a better person. One of my fear is to talk or speak in front of people. There are many presentations to do for my assignments in college. I feel very nervous and sometimes I even forget what I supposed to say whenever I stand in front of my classmates. In order to overcome my fear in front of crowd, I tried to find out the source of my fear and tackle down my fear. I always be prepared before I present. Then I kept practicing in front of my friends and asking advices from my lecturer to improve my presentation skills so that I can present confidently in front of people. Although I have not overcome my fear completely, but now I can talk better in front of other people and not be as nervous as before.

In 2010, my parents decided to get divorced. I lived in the Fairless Hills/Levittown area and moved to many different condos, apartments, and houses. I did not move to Bethlehem until 2012, I would be in fifth grade attending Spring Garden Elementary School. I was new to the school and I had no friends at all. It was really hard for me get rid of all my friends just to start all over again. I did not fit in at first, but eventually I made friends that I still have today. From reading Persepolis: The Story Of A Childhood, it taught me lessons that I have not been reminded of for quite some time. Lessons that are deemed useful when living through my life. From Satrapi's memoir, I learned that I should be true to myself, I should never take life for granted, and my life is not as perfect as it seems to be.