Finally an Adult

Topic: Right of Passage

Source: This week I was hired for my first job. I went to my first day of work on Friday April 27, 2012.

Relation: Last week's reading in Anthro Robbins discussed the rights of passages for different cultures.

Description: With the school year coming close to an end, I've been job searching more than ever. Last week I needed some paper for my printer so I went into the bookstore to get some. To my surprise I saw one of my classmates working one of the registers. I asked her how she got the job so fast, to only be pointed to the direction of the back of the store to grab an application. I filled it out before I even left for home. The next day I had an interview for an opening! I was so happy and so not prepared for one. I went into the interview with what I had and got the job anyways. I started my first day of work that Friday. My training was pretty simple. I just never realized how many things a cashier had to know for a transaction. I'm done with training now and soon will start making transactions of my own in the upcoming week. I'm so excited about my first job!

Comment/Analysis: I feel closer to an adult now that I finally have some money to support myself. Now that I have a job I'll be able to keep up on living expenses and other things I need for school. I also won't have to ask my parents for money and other support. (That was pretty embarrassing). Now I feel like a new man ready to take on the world. My step-dad even told me I'd have to start paying taxes like the rest of us. As weird as this sounds, I'm happy I'm in that group. It's the group of the elite and adults, and that's the one I want to be in. Other cultures have different rights of passages; like the Maasai. They have circumcison as their way to become a man (Robbins 140). My culture would see their culture's right of manhood as a pretty extreme one. This doesn't mean that a simple thing like getting a drivers licence and turning 18 isn't the same right of passage in America. Each culture has their own distinct right of passage. In my family, getting a job is a big deal and great step towards becoming an adult. This is why I was so excited to finally get a job. I'm now accepted as an adult in my family and happy that I am.

I'm a Jesus Freak!

Topic: Love

Source: Yesterday, on April 14, 2012, I was baptized for the first time. I never knew so many people cared about me. All my nuclear family was present, and a lot of my friends were there, giving their love and support for me too.

Relation: Our Cultural Anthro book discusses families in different areas of the world. It describes how various families love individuals in their family or if love is even present at all in family life.

Description: Waiting in the back room, I was nervous. I had butterflies going through my stomach before I even stepped through the door. Since I was just being baptized I knew I shouldn’t be so anxious, but for some reason I was. With the door opening, I suddenly became even more worried that I might slip or that I might forget how to pronounce my own name. When I walked out the door and saw that most of the crowd was composed of my family or people I knew, I was immediately relieved. I saw all their eyes fixed on me. Their smiles and tears were so comforting, and it was then that I knew everything was going to be okay. And it was. I said my name without messing up. Papa John asked if I had anything else to say. I did, as I shouted I was a Jesus Freak into the microphone. Everyone thought that was funny.

Analysis/Comments: A lot of people take love for granite. I used to be one of these people. It took me until I was knee deep in water to realize that there are a lot of people outside of my nuclear family that truly love me. Love comes in many different forms from many different people. I learned that my mom and dad love me no matter what I am doing. And if it is proven to be morally right, my parents love me even more. My friends love me when I stand up for what I believe in. As long as I’m doing something that shows who I truly am, my friends will show their love for me too. All this hit me like one giant lightning bolt as I was dunked into the water. I came up and saw my family and friends so proud of me; they were crying, smiling, and clapping with love and joy. It was then that I realized love comes in different forms from different people.

"If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other one also." -- Luke 6:29

Topic: Religion

Source: Reading the Bible and journaling this past week in preparation for Easter Sunday.

Relation: Chapter four in our anthropology book discusses religion. It brings up questions, arguments, and practices about it.

Description: When I saw that religion was a topic to blog about, I decided to read my Bible every day for that week and take notes on it. I didn’t know where to start, but I wanted it to be in the New Testament since Easter was coming up. It was between the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I picked Luke because he was the most educated of the four gospel writers and also because he was the only gospel author who was a gentile; or a person who is not Jewish. His letters were to all the people, but mostly to gentiles like me. So I read and took notes on Chapter 4, 5, and 6. Each chapter had great information to follow. The one that impacted me most last week was chapter 6, when Luke talks about loving your enemies just as much as you love your brothers. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.” (Luke 6:32)

Comment/Analysis: Even though I’ve read this passage before, it’s still hard for me to try and like people I don’t like. It’s hard for everyone to love and forgive those who have done terrible things to you. For example: when you’re waiting in line and someone just cuts you like they’re better than you. I just wanted to push the guy out of the way because I had already been waiting for a while and I had lots of things in my hands, and I was sick. I decided to let it go and not even say anything. He noticed he had cut me and said he was sorry. I decided that was enough first hand evidence for me and I decided to forgive all the people who had ever hurt me or my family right there in my life. I felt like the biggest weight had been lifted off me and for some reason I just kept smiling. It’s funny how things work. It started out as an assignment, turned into a study, and then reality. By forgiving the guy in line I forgave everyone else too and relieved myself of added stress that I didn’t need. Anthropology would view this as an interpretive drift (Robbins). I was drifting toward the practices of the Bible without even realizing it. And the words from Luke stuck with me. Even though all I did was take a couple notes on it.

"I think I'm Pregnant"

Topic: Humor

Source: Gossiping with my girlfriend today and finding out one of my friends is 8 months pregnant.

Relation: Our textbook goes over how humor works its ways into different cultures.

Description: On our way back from Wal-Mart, my girlfriend said that one of my old best friends is now pregnant. Before I could say any response, she also said she was due in April! I couldn’t help myself and started busting into hilarious cries of laughter. Asking her how she found out, I still didn’t believe her. I still didn’t understand how I couldn’t have known how one of my best friends was pregnant almost until she had the baby. And yet I found this funny.

Analysis/Comments: After the conversation I was wondering why I thought it was funny that one of my old best friends was pregnant. It could’ve been to the fact that I almost missed her whole pregnancy without even knowing. It also could’ve been since I was hearing it from another person, other than the one that was having the baby. But still, why was it funny to me? I came to the conclusion that when you’re little, or younger, you always dream about what your life will be like when you get older. How it’s going to be perfect and everyone’s going to be happy. And when I found out she was pregnant at the age of 18, it made me laugh because it’s not how you pictured it when you were younger. It’s like watching a movie with a crazy and twisted ending to it. When it happens to you and your friends, it’s more funny, since out of all the dreams and goals you set for you and friends, it always seems like it’s the ending that no one thought of happens. This in turn stimulates one’s laughter at one’s self for ruling out some of the possibilities of what can happen in life.

What's your basketball shoe?

Topic: The cultural change of basketball shoes throughout the years

Relevance: We are studying cultural changes of different cultures in our textbook.

Source: From the NBA all-star game on Sunday February 26, 2012.

Description: Today was the NBA all-star game. I watch this game every year because it’s fun to watch all the best players in the league compete and play on the same team. But this year I noticed something different as I was watching the game. I saw these new shoes and different kinds of new shoes on every player. Some were wearing the same kind, while others were wearing their own shoes that they made. Like Kobe Bryant wearing his own shoes he designed; Dwane Wade wearing his own shoes he designed; Lebron James wearing his own shoes he designed. This got me thinking about what the old players used to wear back when basketball became really popular. During the seventies and eighties the players wore converse. Virtually all of them did, whereas now, virtually no one does. From the nineties on people became fonder of Michael Jordan’s brand of shoe line called Jordans. While Jordans are still very popular today, players are now wearing Nikes, Adidas, and other NBA player’s shoes; most of these players are still playing.

Comment/Analysis: What influenced this culture shift from almost all players wearing the same Converse shoe, to wearing all different kinds of shoes? While watching the all-star game, I noticed no difference in play between players and the different kinds of shoes they were wearing. And it’s not like players now-a-days are playing extremely better with these diverse shoes, than the older players who used to all play with the same shoe. So why change? I came to the conclusion that players in today’s league are more about money and what their image is than players in the older era. Shoe investments are worth so much more now than then. So players are necessarily making shoes because it make their play better, but because millions of people will buy their product and will help the already rich NBA player become even more rich. This was started with Michael Jordan when he first came out with his shoe line which still exists today. But once he came out with a shoe, everyone else wanted to come out with their own. Over the years the different pairs of shoes became more and more popular until there were so many shoes, and it seemed like no one was wearing the same pairs anymore. Even MJ stated he wore a new pair of Jordans every game.

Football: A Way of Life

Topic: Cultural Text-American Football

Source: My sophomore year in high school and my first year on the varsity football team. This was in fall of 2008.

Relation: In the textbook, Cultural Anthro, it discusses the meaning people in certain societies give to games; like American Football in the United States, and the Cockfights in Balinese.

Description: My first year playing varsity high school football was a little different than I thought it was going to be. The head coach was Coach Nova, and he had been a head coach for a handful of years and was very successful at it. He won three straight league championships and went to the playoffs three straight times. So when he asked me to move up from the junior varsity squad to play for his varsity team, I was more than happy. I learned so many things to help me become a better football player through him coaching me and through going to practice every day. To show up earlier than early to practice; to respond to your coaches as coach Nova or coach Rook; to never give up on a play, even if it’s not what you called in the huddle; to not quit the team, even if you didn’t like the team or the coaches; to never quit on yourself, no matter how tough the circumstances are; to trust in your teammate next to you to do his job; to play every play like it’s your last; to always play with your heart and go have fun. These were special details to the game of football that I never really thought to do. They helped me through some very tough times that year. Like when I switched positions in the middle of the season. I had to learn a whole new style of play which was very difficult. I also suffered a torn tendon in my oblique which only made things worse. Trying to impress my coach, playing a new position, and playing with a torn oblique tendon were some of the most difficult tasks I had ever had to do, but with the support of Coach Nova, and his simple little sayings, I was able to get through it.

Commentary/Analysis: In the textbook, Robbins talks about how Americans see American football closely related to war. Well this is true to a certain extent. As a player we also see football as a war. Every game is a battle and the whole season is the war. I also see the game of football as a way of life. Whenever Coach Nova had talked to us he was always trying to connect football to real life. Everything stated above has meaning to football, but more importantly meaning to life. In real life you always want to be early to class, work, and possibly job interviews. In football, calling a coach, coach, really goes a long way, just like whenever you talk to someone, you should hold them to a higher respect by calling them sir or mam. Being flexible in football is just as important as being flexible in your daily schedule. Life will throw some pretty crazy things your way and most of the time it’s not what you prepared for. Just like when a play goes wrong in a game. You still have to figure out what to do next, just like life. My coach always told us never to quit, even the smallest things in life. If you quit one time, you’ll always be a quitter. Trust is a huge factor in our everyday lives just like in football. To trust your teammate is like to trust your spouse to be faithful, or to trust your co-worker to get part of the job done. In football you have to go hard every play. In life you have to do the best you can at everything in order to be successful. Maybe the most important aspect of the game is to have fun. Well in life that’s what we’re always trying to accomplish; to have a fun time. So from observing football as a spectator or fan, they could say it’s about war and about marketing. But from a participant observing football, I can say it’s more about a way of life for the future.

What would you choose to eat: Pizza, Spaghetti, or Cereal?

Topic: Food

Source: Observing an occasion where food had to be served to a group of people. The group was a group of men who played poker every Monday night, and every Monday night they would play at one of the group member’s houses. This week was my house.

Relation: Food is a part of everyone’s culture and subculture. American food is different from Mexican food. What’s served at a birthday party for a twelve year old could be different from what’s served at wedding reception. There are plenty of different types of foods, or motives and reasoning behind everyone’s decision on what should be served to a group of people.

Description: Every month my mother has to host the Monday night poker event and has to either cook for everyone or buy enough take-out food to fill everyone’s stomach. There are a handful of men, who barely fit around our table. There has been multiple times where my mom just cooks pizza since that seems to be the easiest. This time she cooked spaghetti.

Commentary/Analysis: Why spaghetti for the Monday night crew I wondered?  Before I asked my mom I tried to think of some reasons myself. Was it cheaper, easier to make? Maybe it was on sale, or someone from the group had asked for spaghetti since my mom does cook it very well? I also began to wonder why it was still Italian food being served to the men who played poker. The conclusion I came to was that they were probably just getting tired of the same old pizza and wanted something new. Thus spaghetti was made. My only concern was why did they stick with Italian food? Was it better than all the rest or just preferred by the group, or by the cook? After asking my mom, I got my answer. She decided on what was being cooked because it was cheap and easy to make. So is cereal but I didn’t see her making it. To answer why she chose spaghetti over something cheap and easy to make, like cereal, is simple; for certain cultures and subcultural groups, there are only certain types of food that can be served. For example your boss comes over to your house; you’re not going to serve him cereal. But if kids come over to hang out with your son, you could serve them cereal and they wouldn’t mind.