I.

*Note: Will go off topic and on tangents.*

I was a little few minutes late to my second Sociology meeting this Monday. Truth be told, I believed that I was going to go to my College Algebra class today. Thankfully, I'm forgetful enough to not remember which room it was in, and when I checked my schedule I realized (much too late) that I was supposed to be heading towards the BACA building.

Needless to say, I was a little ill-prepared for the lecture, and had the wrong materials.

It did not take long for Professor Smith to delve into our lesson, briefing some vocabulary at first and jumping right onto the topic of suicide.
Apparently, it's the most original one can ever get.

A lot of the things she went over had not been new to me (I had a group project back in high school on the subject), but I could not say that it did not bring me back down to Earth. A lot of the statistics made sense (I suppose that's why they are the statistics), and some of the time, I could not really believe some of the ignorant statements and questions that were thrown out there. Although, I guess some of them had really been out of curiosity (it's my cynicism that makes me feel otherwise).

One of my peers had suggested that the suicide rates in more poverty-stricken countries were lower because they had nothing to lose. She probably did not mean anything bad by it, but I could not help but feel bitter over the statement. It implied too many things about the life of another; where their priorities lie, what wealth is to them, et cetera.
They might not be rich in monies, but they might be rich in moments. If you think about it though, that's all we really have. Sometimes we forget that.

My mother comes from a third-world country, as well as her sisters that have traveled to North America for better opportunities. I know that a portion of all of their checks go to their brothers and sisters in the Philippines to help support their family (and their family's family). I also know that all of my aunts and uncles forward money to my grandparents to help support them now that they are done taking care of their children (so to speak). That part of their culture is so endearing to me. I love that they take care of one another, and when one of them hurt, they all hurt and get through hard times together. I only wish that that carried on into our family.

I feel that that is what is wrong with the world, really. Everyone is too worried about self preservation, and not about having compassion with other human beings. It's sad when we can ignore the hardships of others in our every-day lives because it has become a common place thing. When we are no longer moved by the tears of someone whose life is falling apart because we have work in half an hour. When we send our elderly to retirement homes (I hate those places) because it would inconvenience us to take care of them and sacrifice our time to them like they had when we needed it.

We also talked a little bit about stereo-types, and Professor Smith shared a couple current advertisements that used them as a sales pitch.
The first example had been "Blond women are stupid." With that, she showed us this commercial. The majority of the class laughed during the first half, which I'll admit was pretty silly, but then quieted down with some level of confusion when the ad reached it's punchline.
The second example was that "All men are insensitive," and this was shown to the class.

I think that it is funny (ironic) that commercials like these help sell products so well. They are so uninformative, and you know nothing about the item based off of what you see in the clips. I feel that we are suffering from a severe case of what I'd like to call "Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome". We are not really buying what we see, but for the sake of not being left out in our opinions and looking stupid for not agreeing, we agree anyway.

Watching them also reminded me of a Ford commercial I saw a couple years back (which I can not find at the moment) that had used the word "adrenaline-itus". All I could remember thinking was "What? Seriously? Adrenaline-itus?"
What they were trying to depict was that owning a Ford helped bring adventure and adrenaline back into your life. Their use of the word implied that when you suffered from "adrenaline-itus", you were not getting enough. It just bothered me because it's basic med. class knowledge that the suffix "itus" meant "the inflammation of". So I would imagine that if we were suffering from "adrenaline-itus", we most definitely would not need more of it. I can hardly believe that pieces like this even air.

Anyway, I guess those are all of the random thoughts that passed through my head during the lecture, so I'll stop here.

Oh, and as a side-note to my side-notes. I am feeling pretty blessed in how I lucked out with all of my professors this semester. They have the passion for teaching that I need to have the inspiration to learn more effectively. It will be nice to have one of those "I want you to be here, I want to be here" relationships, and not the "I'm getting paid, you're paying me. Let's go over this material, hopefully you pass... but I could really care less" attitude.

Until next time,
Rachel