Social Status & Cultures...Do They Really Matter?

     Do you ever wonder how other people see you? In this world, we tend to naturally judge others as soon as we meet them, especially if they are a different culture than us. We look at their clothes, their home, their car, their family, their traditions, and we can make an assumption pretty quickly.
     This week in class we talked about Socioeconomic Status and cultures. This includes a person's career, education, appearance, behaviors, where you live, and what kind of things you own. These are the indicators the world looks at when trying to categorize you into a class. So where do you fit in and where do you want to be?
     You'd think the answer would be obvious right? Everyone's dream life would be to be successful, have nice things, live comfortably, etc. Well, to be honest, both sides of the spectrum, rich or poor, have their pros and cons. When you are on the high end, aka, upper class, you develop expectations of how your life should be. Especially as a parent in this class, you may tend to sacrifice time, teaching opportunities, and your example to your family as you try to focus on making more money. On the other hand, living in the lower class has many struggles of it's own. A lower class family is more likely to only have one parent present, as the other one may have left, died, or is almost always out of the home for some reason. With that, the parent that is there loses the support of having another spouse to communicate with and make decisions with. Since the parent is trying to make ends meet, they also like the upper class, miss out of quality time spent in the home with the children. Last but not least, they struggle the most with money. Most of these families are trying to live off of a minimum wage income.
     As we can see, both sides of the spectrum have their trials and issues. Each side has it's own culture and it helps to create the community. We must learn to be kinder human beings and reach out to those who need our help. We are all trying to cultivate a culture that means something to us, and it's up to us to respect others, no matter what they look like, act like, how much money they make, etc. Maybe next time you see someone who isn't exactly like you, you'll pause and take a moment to understand who they are as a person rather than throwing out a judgement. Making these little changes will cultivate a culture of love within the world.