After reading each learning objective and considering them briefly one at a time, I have to say, this definitely looks like a valuable and interesting class; one from which I know I can learn a lot. I chose this class because I have always been interested in history, geography, and different cultures throughout the world. However, I haven’t had the chance to study these subjects as thoroughly as I would have liked; rather, I’ve been more concerned with what’s been going on locally and nationally.
I believe I can bring strengths to the areas of politics/class warfare, geographic locations, and explaining how work creates personal and social identity. I have enjoyed politics since I took my first college-level political course and because I enjoyed it so much, I’ve read several books on the subject. I have also stayed very actively involved with my local political community. I write my congressmen often and for fun, I am usually involved in some kind of political debate on Facebook. I took several more college-level political courses and I absolutely loved the Kirkpatrick Series that I took at Bellevue University! I am great at finding geographic locations because when I was in grade school, I won a competition for world geography. To prepare, I had to memorize all the capitals of the 50 United States as well as all the capitals of every country in the world! Obviously, I had to be able to locate where each country was located on a map and I have retained probably about 80% of everything I learned during that competition. I also can very much relate to how work can create a person’s personal and social identity because I have been an adult since I was fifteen years old. I became pregnant at that age and as a result, I was booted out of my mother’s home. Shortly after I turned sixteen, I was legally emancipated and I married my daughter’s biological father. At that tender age, we were both employed full-time, we were successfully maintaining a decent home, and we were both continuing our education. We refused to accept any help from the many social programs that offered a safety net and we both quickly learned that only hard work can give us the lifestyle and security we craved for ourselves and for our daughter. As you probably have already figured out about me from my week one discussion board postings, I believe in hard work and personal responsibility and in my opinion, it is the only way to become the person you want to be both personally and socially. These are the things I have taught my daughter and at age fourteen, she is extremely bright, well-educated, and responsible; she truly does live up to her potential.
The areas that are new and unfamiliar to me include those of religion, cultural displacement, and how the growth of population effects the world. Growing up, I was raised Southern Baptist and even though I was baptized at age eight, I never really understood what was going on. It wasn’t until I was nineteen that I started to study the Bible and the Christian faith through the Pentecostal church. That may not have been the best way to start because I decided that religion wasn’t for me; the Pentecostals scared the hell out of me with their impossible standards and “speaking in tongues” thing. Then, I started college and learned about mythology and other world religions. This answered several questions for me and gave me the ammo I needed when I got into debates about why I refused to adopt any form of religion. For the longest time, I referred to myself as an Atheist and scoffed at the ideas presented by anyone of faith. And then I met my current husband who is a Mormon. He turned my world and belief systems upside down and I began to realize that his arguments were making sense. All I’ve ever heard about Mormons is that they are freaks, they have more than one wife, and they have, on average, about 5-10 kids. However, although he has never pushed his religion on me, lately, I’ve been taking a serious look at the church because they have managed to get my attention. We’ll have to see how that goes. I can’t say I truly understand what it’s like to experience cultural displacement due to the fact that, with the exception of my brief stay in Saudi Arabia when I was active duty military (I didn’t leave the base because I refused to wear one of those hijabs and I wouldn’t walk six feet behind the men), I’ve never lived abroad. I have visited Canada and Mexico on vacation but I didn’t really experience much culture shock at the time. Like most people, I have the desire to travel to other countries around the world but I can’t honestly say I want to live anywhere but Omaha, Nebraska. As far as the effects of population growth on the world, I can’t say I’ve studied much on that subject. It should be quite interesting and eye-opening for me. I believe this class will be better with me in it because I love a good debate! I’ll be the first one to say I disagree with you and I will thoroughly explain why, I can accept criticism well, and I enjoy encouraging others to reach their true potential. I think this is a reflection of what I do for a living. I am constantly playing referee with my employees, I receive a lot of criticism from corporate and upper management in the form of strict inspections and secret shopper programs, and I have built myself an amazing team since taking over this store. I see failing and constant learning as a necessary part of life and I understand the concept of becoming great at what you do now so you can move to the next level (like a video game).
I can’t say I’m concerned about this class because I have committed myself whole-heartedly to learning from it and from all the people who are involved. Because I have failed so many times in my life, I know how to look for life-lessons in everything, even bad situations. As far as worldly concerns, I admit I’m a bit fearful about the future of our country. The future of the entire world is directly affected by ours and in our lifetime, we could experience an end to the life we have grown accustomed to and we may need to adjust to these changes both personally and economically. In fact, we already have; the last two and half years are evidence of that. 