Growing Up In Marystown Essay

Within the community, they find strength, shaping their identities,

In the summer of '62, Steve Polimeni, my best friend in all the world, closer than a brother since we were four years old, came from Portland for a visit. Eight years earlier, Steve and I were five-year-olds, attached at the hip, growing up in the suburban jungle of expanding Portland. Although we lived in a big city, we were no strangers to wild adventure. The neighborhoods were expanding at breakneck speed in an effort to keep up with the post-war baby boom. The suburbs were rolling over the former hayfields and forests of northeast Portland.

Can a small simple town have major effects on almost every aspect of a person 's life? Some people would answer this question with a no, but I would answer with a defiant yes because I personally have been changed by a town named Fyffe. Fyffe , a quaint town in northeast Alabama, does not seem like a place able to change someone since little happens. On the inside however lies an amazing school where I have gone my whole life, and a strong vibrant community.

In the spring of 2012, I was informed that we were going to move. As a thirteen going on fourteen year old, the news was rather jarring. I was born and raised in that house, in that town, it was all I knew. We packed up our belongings and began the 678 mile journey to our new “home.” Moving from Hartland, Michigan to Durham, North Carolina was not only immense in distance, but in way of life.

What we are taught and where we come from, makes up the majority of who we are and helps influence the decisions we perform in everyday society. Proudly, I’m from Kings Mountain, a modest place, as a result of living here it has impacted me in a variety of phenomenal ways, from the way I communicate to the way I act. Due to the fact of living in Kings Mountain, I have been introduced to a variety of opportunities, for example, my current school, Cleveland Early College High School. I have been accepted into outstanding programs that, in turn, has helped me to achieve my objectives and future plans. Although, I attend this tremendous school I tend to envision about how it would have been similar to attending a traditional high school, I was originally suppose to represent Kings Mountain High, but I decided that I wished to pursue something outside of what I considered I could reach.

The community I grew up in central Texas celebrated my heritage, honored differences in culture, and fostered personal growth and self-discovery. My parents, with the strong work ethic they developed on their family’s farms in Ghana, encouraged my brother and me to work hard and find ways to use our skills to be of service to others, which wasn’t hard to do growing up in Austin with its many avenues to become involved and take care of the community, whether it was helping to direct families through the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park during the winter or raise money for educational programs for underprivileged kids in the area through working the concession stands at the University of Texas at Austin. It was this collaborative mindset that Austin

The way I felt about my city and my surroundings had a strong correlation with the way I felt about myself. Prior to this realization, my dreams and aspirations for the future were minimal. I performed well throughout elementary school, and I was moved up a grade because my reading and math skills were advanced. However, when I began attending middle school, the new atmosphere combined with all of the new awareness I gained as I started transitioning from a child to an adolescent ended up in me lowering the expectations I had for myself. Once I regained my optimism and saw that Oakland is not what people say it is, I began seeing life in an optimistic way as

Having a sense of community means I can receive support, which also benefits my health. For example, whenever I have an important test, I always turn to my friends for notes, advice, and crucial information I need to review. This makes it easier for me to study effectively and reduces

“There’s lots of traditional thinking buried deep within each story and the longer you spend thinking about it the more you learn about yourself, your people and the Indian way” (Wagamese, 1994, p.145). Reuniting with his family, discovering his heritage, connecting with community members, and learning the traditional teachings and practices have greatly impacted his sense of self, identity, and values toward community. It was foundational to his self-discovery and community connection that he had several people like his sister who were willing to share the family history and their ties to the community. To understand the nature, processes and experience of sense of community at any one time for a particular community it is necessary to have some appreciation of the community’s history (Pretty, 2006). Working closely with Keeper and reconciling the negative feelings his mother had toward losing him has likely helped solidify an aspect of community wherein members matter to one another and that their needs will be met by staying

As a young girl, around the age of 10 I lived in the Perry projects with my mother. Previously to moving there I would visit often to see my great-grandmother. When I would visit my grandmother there were not many other people that were African-American. The Commodore Perry Projects had been actually made for white people.

Society is fooled into believing in the applied connection among people. Benedict Anderson’s idea of imagined communities emphasizes that, “… the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (5). Members of neighborhoods, cities, states, or countries feel a sense of unity with other members for living in the same place or maybe having the same basic values, but true unity comes from understanding the similarities among each other, considering the impact a person can have on another, and caring about lives. Recognizing the importance of lives being socially intertwined is necessary to sustain a considerate society.

I grew up in Wellston, Ohio and lived in the countryside about fifteen minutes from town. My house was a home to me and it wasn 't the greatest, but it was special to me. My big backyard consisted of many fruit trees and a grape vine, it was where I had bonfires with my family and friends, and it was where I ran free with my brother. I had a pond, “over the hill” as my brother and I would say, where we swam and fished in the summertime and sat on the deck feeding bread to the bluegill as we had conversations about life. Behind our pond was where thousands of trees stood tall and where we roamed every inch of the hidden land.

But the thing that made me lose sight of a path to get out was moving here from Edmonton. I had already decided I didn't like Stirling before I even had the chance to experience it. I missed my old community and friends that I had grew up with. I turned away from the world. I became a closed box with a hidden key.

A community, a complex term that often times elicits various feelings and definitions, generally implies that there are relationships between a group of people that share some common goals, values, the same geographical location, or, perhaps a way of life that reinforces one another. In a community, members choose to associate with, or connect to each other. However, it is only when we take a step back from the activities in our life’s, do we recognize reality and witness the social interactions that occur around us every day. The overarching purpose of this assignment was to go out into the community on two separate occasions to observe the social interactions- paying close attention to evidence of social networks, excluded or exclusive communities,

When watching the video in class, I felt overwhelmed by an unspeakable emotion. After I shared my experience with one of my friends studying sociology, I learned this concept from him. “Group effervescence” was a concept raised by Émile Durkheim, which is used to describe the circumstance that “a community or society may at times come together and simultaneously communicate the same thought and participate in the same action. ”(Durkheim) This kind of sense of identity really unite people together.