My sister and her girlfriend and my brother and his boyfriend.
My Graduation.
Me and my boyfriend.
I can definitely attest to certain events, people, and forces contributing to the story of who I am. Both of my parents are educated past a highschool diploma, they both have a college degree. They both work as accountants and are very successful. I would consider myself as growing up having a pretty privileged life: I got a car when I turned 16, I went on vacations, I got to shop where I wanted etc. Because of my lifestyle growing up it was ingrained in my head the necessity of education in order to be successful and live a privileged lifestyle. I put school first and foremost in my life without even thinking about it because of this upbringing. My upbringing has also caused me to realize the advantages of having a job with a good salary and has shown me what life is like when you don’t have problems paying the bills or putting food on the table but actually have money to use on things you want. This also caused me to make up in my mind that I must live this way when I am older and therefore must have an education and good paying job. I can attest to the fact that this same thing was ingrained in my siblings. All of my older siblings have an education further than a college degree such as masters, and doctorates. I have one sibling also in college with me. We are both honor students who have made our college education our priority. I do not plan on stopping at college and instead plan on getting my MD. In my life education signifies successful.
Growing up I was raised as a catholic, I had four brothers and two sisters and we all went to church every Sunday. I would say growing up this way made me very closed minded to different types of people especially towards the GLBT community. As I got older my family stopped being so involved in the Catholic Church. This change caused a slight shift in the lens in which I see society through but what caused an even bigger shift was my brother coming out as gay and my sister coming out as lesbian. This really caused the way I view the GLBT community and actually converted me from being horrified to a supportive ally. I also grew up in a predominantly white community causing me to have a very specific feeling about people of other races; this has significantly changed since starting school at the University of Minnesota.
As a former Catholic myself (kindergarten through 8th grade I went to Catholic school), I can really appreciate the shift for you to become accepting of GLBT. It's sometimes tough to get over labeling people as strange. It surprises me how different my view of GLBT is now compared to 2 years ago in high school. I was an ally in high school, but still was rather homophobic. At the U, coming into contact and meeting more diverse people has really helped. It doesn't come as a surprise to see friends who went to private Christian schools coming out with a less accepting viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteI was always told by my parents that I needed an education. I have still been told that I had to wait until I graduated college to get a motorcycle. I think that I had the same thought process of getting an education and a good job implanted in me as a child, and I can still feel it.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that education is the key to success, as my parents drilled into my head when I was little that I was only going to be successful if I got a good education. As for the GLBT part, I was never really homophobic, but I didn't think there was such a huge population of GLBT until I came to the U. I know a lot of people who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, and actually about half my friends are. I am extremely supportive of them and it really opened my eyes to this whole new community that I never really knew much about.
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