Personal description
My name is Erin Morin and I am a heterosexual. I’m a single mother, and I returned to school when I was 22 where I was able to get my GED after dropping out from all the teasing. I started college in the Fall of 2016 after seeing I was never going to become successful with my low paying office job and currently I’m a student of New Mexico Highlands University in the field of social work and I will graduate in 2020 if all goes according to plan. While growing up, I was intensively exposed to the Catholic religion by my strict grandmother, and as result, I automatically adopted the religion as my own. I am very okay in terms of physical ability although I have some kind of dyslexia.
Description of where I was born
I came into this world on the 12th of November 1984. From the time I was born, and through the initial years of growing up, we lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Generally, the arpea in which we lived belongs to peasants and that’s exactly the situation in which we lived. The problems that my family faced were compounded when my father left my mother, and therefore, I have primarily been raised by my mother until she decided to re-marry. As a Hispanic woman, growing up in a society that was financially challenged was a problem since men used to view us as sexual tools, and the only way that most of us could make money was by fulfilling men’s sexual desires.
Earliest memories regarding these factors
While growing up, I was exposed to a cocoon of challenges, and at various points, I felt depressed and I ended up believing that the world is a very unfair place. However, I learned never to lose hope despite how huge the challenges would appear to be. Lessons about never losing hope I learned them from my pastor since we used to go to church every Sunday as it was a policy in my family. When I gave birth to my second child, I was taken to church and prayed for by the pastor since I had taken a path that was considered to be sinful by my parents. My mother was always there for us, and this taught me a lot as a woman. Even now that my children have grown up, my first born is 17 years old, I can never fail to take care of them despite that challenges that I may face in life since I wouldn’t like to see them face similar problems.
Emotions that I get when recalling memories
Growing up in a society that does not appreciate and tries to uplift the well being of peasants is one of the hardest undertakings in life. Now that I am growing woman, at least I can appreciate that fact that God has enabled me to reach this point in life. I always plan to educate my children on the importance of believing in oneself as I failed to do so and that led me to drop out of school due to the indifference that had been imparted on me by my fellow schoolmates (Manlove, 1998). When a person is teased repeatedly, it becomes very easy to develop low self-esteem, and this can extensively interfere with the psychological growth. Teasing messed made me as if I was unwanted by the society (Cornell, et al.2013). The situation was worsened when I got my second child. Everybody saw me as an errant kid and every single day was a struggle to overcome the psychological stress as a result of feeling indifferent (Kessler, 1979).
Ways that I felt different
From an early point in life, I had learned to appreciate the importance of religion, and that is probably one of the things that made me feel strong amid the discrimination that was brought forth by the society. However, there are cases where I thought that being Hispanic was a curse, and that meant I had to struggle throughout my life in order to become rich. The situation was aggregated by the fact that my step-dad, who I really loved, kept being criticized as a result of his skin color. The situation made me to almost hate him. As a kid, it is very easy to adopt the ideas that are availed by other people in the society, and I was at that very point in life. Today, I allowed an indifference to be imparted to me by the society, which almost interfered with the smooth relationship that I had with my father.
Categories of indifference
Apart from racial discrimination that was very rampant in the community where my mother moved to, sexual discrimination was very extensive. Women were constantly seen as sexual tools that could be used at any time. At one point, I almost lost my morals and that is why I ended up getting two children with different fathers. When I got my first born, my mother was very angry and she wanted me to give up the child for adoption. I used to believe being a woman is a huge burden that one as to contend with, and that men were very lucky since they could do whatever they wanted and get away with it. There was also discrimination in the church due to the view that people had about a person who had had children outside marriage.
Times that I felt discriminated
I was highly exposed to discrimination while going to school. Compounding with the fact that my parents were not financially stable, many kids loved the idea of looking down upon me. Sometimes, I could not associate with certain groups of students since I used to be afraid of being exposed to further discrimination. In the society that I grew up in, I was exposed to sexual discrimination sine men were somehow given a higher preference when it came to certain things in life. I used to feel bad since I could not understand why women were not being given the same preference as that of women in the society. Additionally, I was exposed to discrimination in church since my pastor told me that I would not be allowed to take the Holy Communion if I continued to get kids.
Times that I felt privileged
As much outside the community was very harsh towards me while I was growing up, I used to appreciate the fact that God had given me a family that was capable of showing me, love. I used to know many kids in the society who did not have loving and caring parents like I had. I never regret keeping my first born. Initially, my mother wanted me to give him up for adoption, but I always feel happy that I decided to keep him. Every day that I see him growing up I am usually filled with the joy that nobody can ever take away from me. Moving to Rio Rancho, I felt welcomed and this really helped me to start being positive.
Current feelings
The subject of gender, race, and sexual orientation can be very challenging especially when growing up in a society that does not really understand the background of a person (Kessler, 1979). If people were a little bit nicer to other individuals who possessed different characteristics, then positive and rapids societal growth could be achieved. As much as it would be somehow difficult to achieve such a state in a normal society, religion is a key factor that would help to sustain positive growth in the society. Just like in my case, religion provided me with a place where I could lay my hope and in the middle of all the influence, I was able to retrace my steps and regain a strong footing as I became more mature.
How people who are different from me feel
I believe that discrimination in the society is being extended to all kinds of people and it hurts a lot. Even that we now live in Rio Rancho where everything is different, people who are not white tend to be discriminated upon. I have seen individuals become affected negatively, but there is no one to help them out since the society does not realize the negativity that is being impacted on such people (“Effects of Discrimination”, 2018)
Conclusion
Writing this paper has really helped to re-cap my previous life and the challenges that I have had to go through before reaching to this point in life. Initially, I used to think about the challenges that I had gone through in life without considering their extensive nature. Now that I have put everything in writing, I have been able to gain a vivid picture of how thing transpired in the past. I believe love is love and color of skin or gender shouldn’t matter, My daughter is bi-sexual and I love her the same as I did the moment she was born and I don’t associate with people who are racist or homophobic at least that I’m aware of.
References
Discrimination Essay – Effects of Discrimination. (2018). UKEssays. Retrieved 23 April 2018, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/philosophy/what-are-the-effects-of-discrimination-on-society-philosophy-essay.php (“Effects of Discrimination”, 2018)
Manlove, J. (1998). The influence of high school dropout and school disengagement on the risk of school-age pregnancy. Journal of research on adolescence, 8(2), 187-220.
Cornell, D., Gregory, A., Huang, F., & Fan, X. (2013). Perceived prevalence of teasing and bullying predicts high school dropout rates. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(1), 138.
Kessler, R. C. (1979). Stress, social status, and psychological distress. Journal of Health and Social behavior, 259-272.
