Studying the fundamentals of sociology, it has given me the ability to comprehend where my views originate from and how my understanding in the role of societal characteristics influences the aspects of my life. Therefore, by looking at myself through a sociological perspective, I can see the bigger picture through socialization, gender, status and roles, social hierarchies race and ethnicity. I will reflect my life to better analyze my behavior and how my experiences in life differs from others on the problems that I have faced in my biographical background as well as connecting the sociological dots to my own personal life.
On the 9th of April, 1998, my twin brother who is the first born took his breath on the wee hours of the morning. About 9 minutes later, I was brought into this world. I have a total of 3 siblings and we were all raised on the West coast state of Perak in Malaysia with Ipoh being the capital city. I have been given an ascribed status, a social status that was acquired involuntary at birth, as a son and younger brother. My own family had a large impact on how I might turn out in later in life. My father, mother, and brothers all had significant impact of my outlook in life. They helped instill what values thoughts within society regarding what is valuable in life, principles and specific statements that people contemplate to be true, that were vital to my existence. They have been Instrumental in showing me the right way to socialize with people and how to exist as a member in society. Along with teaching me proper etiquette and manners, they also taught me regarding norms, behavioral expectations which guided me in various situations.
As a part of a functioning society we tend to have several different social statuses that typically defines our positions socially. I always had several statuses previously or widely known as a status set. While advancing throughout my high school years, I retained several statuses that helped me shaped my future. I was a very active member in the Music club, a brother, a best friend and as a student, just to name a few. The statuses that I maintained possess different roles that was clearly defined by an individual and society. Part of myself was involved in upholding those values to guide appropriate behaviors in various situations. I have reached a height of statuses, positions that an individual takes on voluntarily and places upon one’s self. For instance, I was heavily involved in the Music club and was an officer which was a position that I was elected in by my fellow members and teachers based on my ability and performance during my past experiences with school clubs. This led to a huge development of my personality and lifestyle choices.
Another important aspect to my social life that has extremely shaped my life is my Twin brother. Having siblings may be a lot fun. Right from having a person to play with, to that one individual who’s always down whenever you need a hand. However, siblings face a lot of compatibility issues and that only multiply with twins. During the early years of my childhood it wasn’t always how I expected it to be. As a brother and half of a pair, there were numerous matters that we had to overcome that was affecting us and our bond as brothers. Despite everything that happened throughout our early years, our bond was inseparable. At the very beginning of our childhood, we used to be different not because we are different but because we chose to be.
During the second year of our primary education, we had to be seated separately in classes because we were very competitive of each other and due to peer pressure. Some pairs of twins are characteristically distinctive from each other and features different unique qualities. However, I did notice that if one is better than the other, it creates a whole lot of problem for the other one to deal with the constant competition. Having seated separately with my twin, our class mates significantly contributed the intensity of our rivalry thus led to unnecessary quarrels on a regular basis which made our relationship brittle. However, I was enjoying the competitive side of our sibling rivalry because it made me more dominant to the point where whenever we shared our opinions and ideas, our respect for one another dwindles with time. Identity crisis was certainly one of the biggest troubles that we faced daily. We were often mistaken by our teachers and friends and that usually created numerous rift between us. Despite the fact that onlookers may think wearing similar clothes is cool, most twins detest this. We also hated when our parents dressed us alike because the idea of have our own sense of unique identity flourished in our minds ceaselessly. We were extremely annoyed with each other whenever we wore the same outfits especially during most special occasions. On a positive note, We have gotten a lot popular among our friends which persuaded me to engage with people of different race, religion and educational background.
In high school, engaging with friends is a must for me because I was open to the idea of making a lot friends so that high school will be more of a breeze. As time went on, I found myself socializing with a new group of people and noticed that they were very adventurous and ambitious about their life. At this stage, I was having a lot more attention among our friends and I began to distance myself from my twin. During this period, I had no idea that my relationship with my twin brother was exceedingly unhealthy. After graduating from high school, I have decided to stick with my doppelganger because so far throughout my years of being a teen, he is only one that understands me more than anyone else. As we got older, I realized that there’s no escaping the fact I have a sibling who is genetically similar and has my physical characteristics.
As you can see, my childhood upbringing unquestionably had a tremendous influence that I may not have notion about until looking at it from a sociological perspective.
