A Walk in My Shoes Essay Example for Free

A Walk in My Shoes Essay My name is Jr. I hope you enjoy reading as I take you on a journey and a walk in my shoes. Join me as I walk you through my adolescent years up to adult hood. After reading you will be able to see how I developed socioemotionally and became who I am today and why I am the way I am. I will share some of my favorite memories along with some not so fond memories, which changed who I would become as a Father. I was born and raised on the south side of San Antonio, Texas. I am fourth generation Texan, The Sanchez family settled in Eagle Pass, Texas dating back to before Texas became a Republic in 1836. The south side of San Antonio is predominantly Hispanic. Plus I went to a predominantly all Hispanic Catholic School, mainly due to location. Growing up I had little to no interaction with any other races. I feel this gave my classmates and I a feeling of belonging. As I have learned since we all shared the same race, culture, and religion this also helps young people with identity formation. We not only embraced our Mexican heritage we also embraced our Texan heritage. I grew up learning both Spanish and English. Studies show that youths with a positive ethnic identity who also embrace the American culture have more positive outcomes (Umana-Taylor, 2006). My Family growing up was very close. It seemed we always had aunts and uncles living with us at some point in time. I did not mind as I was always looked after and they were excellent role models and provided emotional stability. I am the oldest of four and we are spaced about 4 years apart. My baby sister, the youngest of my siblings came to us when I was about 15. My Father was very strict growing up. It was the typical wait until your dad gets home of scenario. He was a hard working man, and a great provider to his family. He worked two jobs for over twenty years. He put me and my sister and brother through Catholic private school. My father barely graduated high school and was very proud to have graduated. He wore his High school graduation ring until the day he died. If this does not tell you why he sacrificed working two jobs for twenty years I will tell you. There was nothing more important in my dads eyes than going to school and getting a good education. He did not want his kids to have to work as hard as he had to, he wanted a better life for us. Where would I be without my mother. My mother is truly an amazing woman. I know everyone must think their mom is pretty great; unless you can tell me that your mom can go from working a 8-12 hour day, come home feed the kids, help with homework and finish laundry all in one night, than I would say you have a great mom. What sets my mom apart from other moms is she can Cook, garden, fix you’re a/c unit, retile your floor, install your carpet, change out your oil, alternator, pumps, fix your toilet, you name it my mom can do it. So how about that for some motivation, drive, will to do better. When I say I learned my hard work dedication and will to always strive to be the best from my parents, you can see, I truly mean it. My Father was a great provider and like I mentioned before he wanted the best for his kids. I remember him helping me learn to ride a bike, swim, drive a car and even ride a motorcycle. Which are all key points in a child’s life. My mother also worked very hard and late hours. I was cared for by my grandmother whom I grew very attached to. I know it’s not nice to say but I don’t think it was a big secret, I was her favorite. Going to private school definitely positively impacted my life. It is there I would like to say I met my second family. I went to the same school with practically the same students, teachers, nuns and priests from pre-k to 8th grade. It is there I felt safe, I never had to worry about drugs, fights or any negative influences. I played a few sports growing up, like soccer, baseball, volleyball, and most importantly basketball. I also became an alter boy for about 4 years. The church taught me moral character and to love everyone as we are all children of God. My parents were very lively and loved spending time with each other. They seldom ever left us out, we went right along wit them. So this meant if they were going to a dance, so were we. I loved watching my parents dance. We went to many weddings, quinceaneras, and school dances. Another favorite pass time was going to the lake, or the beach, amusement and water parks. I have a lot of fond memories of growing up with my grandmother. I use to love going to her house in the summers, because that meant great cooking, anything we wanted of course and playing with my cousins. My grandmother did not have a very big yard but it was amazing the things we would come up with playing outside. I mentioned before I played basketball. Well I grew up the shortest in class every year but what I lacked in height I made up for in speed. My dad encouraged me like no other, he taught me not to let the bigger kids beat me, he would always say, do not let them eat your sandwich. I never really understood that until I got older. I think what he meant was if you let people take what is yours you will go hungry. This inspired me some how and I collected a lot of sandwiches, because I was feared on the court, fear I would steal the basketball. I continued to play basketball until my 8th grade year. Our team won City champs two years in a row, plus one first place in every tournament for three years. Talk about building up self esteem. Another memory that sticks out in my head is the day I had enough guts to get up and learn how to dance. My mom taught me well. I enjoyed dancing so much I learned how to swing dance, lindy hop, country dance and tejano dance. My dad bought me my first car, it was a 1972 Volkswagen beetle. It was not in the best of shape but little by little my dad helped me fix it right up. All said and done it had a midnight blue metallic clear coated finished paint job with centerline rims, Pirelli tires and smoke black tented windows. I bought my first Harley Davidson when I was about 25 years old. My father always had a motorcycle until I was about the age of 15. I would say about 1 month after I bought mine, he went and bought himself one. For the first time, in a long time he was back on a bike and we were riding together. As a teenager I was pretty active. We moved from the south side of San Antonio to the outskirts of the southeast side of town. This was about the time I graduated from 8th grade. My life was about to change as I knew it. See, up to this point I only knew and interacted with Hispanics. The High school in my district in our new neighbor hood was well versed and predominately white. It is here I would truly feel and learn what assimilation was. There was a mix of races, homosexuality and people of different religious back ground. I did not fully grasp the concept of racism, to me everyone was equal. This was a very tough adjustment for me, especially since I gravitated to the basketball players, which I had always fit in with. I could not fit in with the basketball players they were much to tall, and a lot better skilled than I was. I did however end up getting picked up for the football team, but stopped playing after my sophomore year. I turned my focus to soccer. By the end of my junior year my dad had his first heart attack and I no longer wanted to play sports. I started working to help pay for things that my parents could no longer support me with. I kept some money and gave some to my parents. Without sports I quickly started falling into the wrong crowd. It was not long until I figured out I was headed on the wrong path and with some guidance from my cousins I snapped back into reality. I enjoyed going to clubs and dancing with girls, showing them all the fancy moves my parents had shown me. I can remember dancing until 2 a. m sometimes. This was not a popular decision with my parents of course. In my lifetime I have held many jobs. My first job was with a pharmacy drug store called Eckards. This introduced me to the cruel world of dishonest people. I eventually had to quit this job as I was accused of taking money from the register. I did not take any money from the register but on camera it looked like I took money from the guy that was over paid and whom owed me money, he took the change from a mystery shopper gave me what he owed me and stuck the rest in his pocket. I was very trusting and naive, I never did question what was going on. So I hit the streets, pizza hut delivery that is. I did that for a few weeks but very quickly was introduced to more than what I care to share about from transvestites to abuse. I did not do that job very long. I went to work for West Telemarketing where I found a comfortable, professional, and challenging job as an ATT representative. I am not going to lie to you this job was boring but I was really good at it, and made a lot of money as a senior in high school. After High school I partied a lot with friends and tried going to a local community college. I also tried to move out of a perfectly good home that I had with my parents. My mother cried for a long time the day I told her I wanted to move out. As it turns out, my mom was right this was not a very good idea and I probably would have done better in community college had I listened to her. I found what I thought was going to be my future in working for Pace Foods. I quickly moved up from learning how to run every machine in the place to being selected as a on the job trained mechanic in about one year. This job found me. I did not choose it. I will never forget my Tio Polo cornering me one afternoon at his house after a night of drinking. He shot it to me strait and gave me the best advise of my life, God Bless His Soul. I joined the Coast Guard at age 20. In the Coast Guard I have had many jobs. I have been a deck hand, a painter, and even a boat rescue swimmer. I really got my calling as I chose to be a corpsman in the Coast Guard. I have done everything from pharmacy, lab tech, x-ray tech, and a physical therapy technician. As I matured in my job I was trained in tactical field medicine and a swat team member. After that I was appointed as a Clinic supervisor. Currently I am running my own clinic as I am the only medical provider for over 60 people. In the Future I would like to make E-7 a rank not easily attained. I would like to finish my degree and retire in San Antonio. I have two kids an ex-wife and the woman of my dreams my wife. My second marriage has worked so well partly because we come from similar religious back grounds and we both believe in making things work. I can honestly say we don’t always see eye to eye, but our Love for each other pushes us past any short falls. I have a son from a previous marriage and she has a daughter from a previous marriage. We currently do not have one together. I hope to instill hardworking ethics and strong leadership to my children. Throughout my life I learned some of the most important things. There are many different walk of people in this world and everyone conforms to whom they were brought up to be. Individually it is our job to note all our differences, along with each persons strengths and weaknesses. I tend to follow my parents footsteps in working hard for what I have and raising my kids with strong moral and respective manners. I hope they grow up to have the respect that I have for my elders. The purpose of such rites is to show society that it has a new adult and to impress on the former youth that he or she is now an adult and expected to act as such. Social scientists like Kottak (2008) believe that rites of passage create new adult identities and allow elders to be looked at as sources of wisdom and role modeling for adult thinking and behavior.

Analysis of Human Perception Essay -- essays research papers

When it comes down to our understanding of the world it is ultimately the result of our sensual means of perception. In other terms, can we really trust the truth, or anything that we know of scientifically? What does it mean to know something is true and also why it is important to distinguish between what you know and do not or cannot know? It is very difficult to be able to believe everything you hear, unless you experience it for yourself. Let?s say the perception is like viewing through goggles. If the tint of the goggles is green, the world appears green, if it?s black the world too 'becomes' black. You want to see poverty, you can. You want to see or feel corruption, and you can get that. If you want to see happiness you can see that too. Throughout the thousand of years, people?s opinions of perception have changed dramatically. My definition and opinion of perception is how I distinguish life. What is significant to me, and what do I not care for? My perception was defined by how I was raised in society. I think it is important to have a strong educational background, and have a close relationship with my family, and friends. To other individuals, they may think my perception isn?t correct, they could presume that working hard for money is significant to them, and family or friends is just a minor thing in life. Life is all in the matter of how each individual perceives it. Also it can be different for each person, as mentioned above, depending on his or her lifestyle. It is the substantiality of opinion of what you believe is true. At one point in time, people didn?t require evidence in order to consider something. The world was naive, and di... ..., geographer, astronomer, and astrologer who lived in the Hellenistic culture of Roman Egypt.? (Ptolemy, Encyclopedia) Ptolemy assumed that the earth revolved around everything, and continued to believe this fact, until Eratosthenes proved him wrong. ?He is noted for devising a system of latitude and longitude, and for being the first known to have calculated the circumference of the Earth.? (Eratosthenes, Encyclopedia) All in all, perception has grown an incredible amount. Perception can be taken any way by any person, but my following examples are good ways of looking at how it can only be believed if you have evidence, or how perception has changed dramatically throughout the years. I thought this topic was very interesting to research, and it never dawned on me how I interpreted perception, until I had to write about it.

Plato and Moral Authority

Kathryn Kelsven Dr. David Sgarlatta Humanities 253 December 21, 2012 Comparing Two Readings After reading Plato’s Apology and Leviticus 17-27, I found several differences in the way people are judged for the crimes they have committed as well as, by what are actually considered crimes or sins. I want to explore these differences by asking two questions to each reading: What kind of behavior constitutes as a sin or a crime? What is the source of moral authority behind laws and legal judgments? In Plato’s Apology, what constitutes as a sin or a crime?Socrates was accused of being a â€Å"doer of evil, and a corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and has other divinities of his own† (Apology 1). These are all things that Meletus has brought Socrates to court for. These are all these that are considered to be a crime to Meletus and the Athenians throughout Apology, as Socrates proves this by continuously taking each item he is accus ed of and asking Meletus and the Athenians if they believe it to be true. In Leviticus 17-27, what constitutes as a sin or a crime?Throughout the reading there are several different times where the LORD speaks to Moses and tells him to let the people know that if they do not follow his command then they are disobeying him. In Leviticus chapter 22:1-2, it states. † The LORD said to Moses, â€Å"Tell Aaron and his sons to respect the sacred offerings which the Israelites consecrate to me; else they will profane my holy name. I am the LORD. †(Leviticus 22). Here, disrespecting a sacred offering is considered a sin. There are also many other examples of what is considered a sin.In chapter 19:4, â€Å"†Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I, the LORD, am your God. †(Leviticus 19). In this case, you should not worship idols or make idols because that would be going against the LORD who is your God. Also in Chapter 17:3-4 it says, †Å"Any Israelite who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat, whether in the camp or outside of it, without first bringing it to the entrance of the meeting tent to present it as an offering to the LORD in front of his Dwelling, shall be judged guilty of bloodshed; and for this, such a man shall be cut off from among his people. (Leviticus 17). In this section, anyone who does not first present his killing as an offering is automatically considered guilty for bloodshed and is cut off from the people. All of these examples show what are considered sins in Leviticus, and there are many more. In Plato’s Apology, what is the source of moral authority behind laws and legal judgments? Socrates is brought before judges. After asking Meletus what he means by calling him an Atheist, Meletus says, â€Å"I assure you, judges, that he does not believe in them; for he says that the sun is stone, and the moon earth. (Apology 3). Meletus is trying to prove to the judges, being the ones that w ill make the ultimate decision of what happens, that Socrates does not believe in any gods. In the very beginning of all of this, after Socrates makes his opening statement, he says, â€Å"Tell the judges, then, who is their improver; for you must know, as you have taken the pains to discover their corrupter, and are citing and accusing me before them† (Apology 1). Again the judges are to be told something in order to prove a point.This all shows that in Plato’s Apology the judges are the moral authority behind laws and legal judgments. In Leviticus 17-27, what is the source of moral authority behind laws and legal judgments? In each chapter we see that the very first statement is always â€Å"The LORD said to Moses† (Leviticus 17-27). This statement is not only at the beginning of every chapter but it is also throughout the chapters. Each time this statement is made it is followed by a law that the LORD is giving to the people. There will also follow some sort of punishment if that law is not followed. The LORD said to Moses,†Tell the Israelites: Anyone, whether an Israelite or an alien residing in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall be put to death† (Leviticus 20). This is a perfect example. The LORD tells Moses what the law is and then follows up with how the people will be punished if not to follow the law; in this case they will be put to death. The LORD is clearly the one and only one to be of any kind of authority when it comes to laws and legal judgments. Both of these readings have very different ideas as to what a sin or a crime is, as well as who is the authority on the laws that have been made.Leviticus is based on there being one authoritarian who decides the laws and decides your punishments if you disobey those laws. In Leviticus you have no way to argue against you convictions. What the LORD says, goes. Also, in Leviticus there are several different criteria for what is considered a sin as com pared to Apology, where there are just a few things brought up that are considered to be a sin or a crime. Apology is based off convincing the people or the judges of what is right or wrong and letting them decide your fate. You have a chance to fight for yourself and prove yourself to be innocent.

2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Molecular Machines

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage (University of Strasbourg, France), Sir J. Fraser Stoddart (Northwestern Univeristy, Illinois, USA), and Bernard L. Feringa (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) for the design and synthesis of molecular machines. What Are Molecular Machines and Why Are They Important? Molecular machines are molecule that move in a certain way or perform a task when given energy. At this point in time, miniscule molecular motors are at the same level of sophistication as electric motors in the 1830s. As scientists refine their understanding of how to get molecules to move in certain way, they pave the future for using the tiny machines to store energy, make new materials, and detect changes or substances. What Do The Nobel Prize Winners Win? The winners of this years Nobel Prize in Chemistry each receive a Nobel Prize medal, an elaborately decorated award, and prize money. The 8 million Swedish krona will be split equally between the laureates. Understand the Achievements Jean-Pierre Sauvage laid the groundwork for the development of molecular machines in 1983 when he formed the molecular chain called catenane. The significance of catenane is that its atoms were linked by mechanical bonds rather than traditional covalent bonds, so the parts of the chain could be more easily opened and closed. In 1991, Fraser Stoddard moved ahead when he developed a molecule called a rotaxane. This was a molecular ring on an axle. The ring could be made to move along the axle, leading to the inventions of molecular computer chips, molecular muscles, and a molecular lift. In 1999, Bernard Feringa was the first person to devise a molecular motor. He formed a rotor blade and demonstrated he could make all of the blades spin in the same direction. From there, he moved on to design a nanocar. Natural Molecules Are Machines Molecular machines have been known in nature. The classic example is a bacterial flagellum, which moves the organism forward. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognizes the significance of being able to design tiny functional machines from molecules and the importance of making a molecular toolbox from which humanity can build more intricate miniature machines. Where does the research go from here? Practical applications of nanomachines include smart materials, nanobots that deliver drugs or detect diseased tissue, and high-density memory.