Social Class

"Bad stuff does happen sometimes; always remember that. But remember you'll have to move on. Somehow, you'll just pick up your head and stare at something beautiful like the sky or the ocean and you'll move on."

Upper, Middle, and Lower class; Blue collar and White collar. Whether we realize it or not, we see these types of people everywhere. Our first instinct is to judge them based on their appearance. "They're too ugly", or "they're too skinny" could be some of the many phrases that people hear every now and then. Or maybe we'll see them at work and judge them based on their jobs. Like this one girl Tammy, for example. She's a (somewhat) old lady who lives in a very small town in Virginia with two kids. She has no car, a trailer for a house, and a horrible job. While watching her, I couldn't help but feel sorry because her kids were always so deprived of love, clothes, etc. One of her kids pretended to act like he was from the upper-middle class just to impress his friends. It's a shame that he was embarrassed to introduce his mom to his friends because he was afraid of what they might think. For the past week our class has been learning about social class and the different types there are; as well as who's in them and their norms. I was really interested in this movie because it opened my eyes as to what our society was really like. I remember back in fourth grade I had just moved here. I knew no one and missed my old friends like crazy. On my first day of school, I walked around like a lost puppy. Although I had some people (who quickly became my friends) show me around, I still felt like an outsider. I was shy and self - conscious of others' opinions. Soon enough, I began to come out of my shell and talk to different types of people. My first friend was one I will never forget. She showed me around and gave me advice on who to stay away from and befriend. Our friendship didn't last long though. In middle school we drifted apart, and even though I was new in fourth grade, people in fifth grade still treated me as if I were still new. The populars and jocks would come up and talk to me; I felt so wanted and cool because no one has ever done that to me before. Up until eighth grade, I began to notice the different cliques. You had your jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, band geeks, and so on. Even though I was young at the time, I still knew about the different groups of friends each middle school or high school had. In most, you wouldn't see a nerd coming to the popular table, but not in mine. Sometimes I would see different people going to lunch tables you normally wouldn't expect them to be at. I was shocked. At my old school you would've never predicted that, but I guess that's how things work. It's during high school when things start to take off; people go into even more different groups and some just fall appart. When you're in a certain clique or raised a certain way, it's hard to get out of, but I think you can change it.