Who am I really?

In the beginning of this year I thought of myself as just a Jew who is only involved with my organization Young Judaea. Young Judaea/Judaism is my only community. My life is only about Young Judaea. When I truly think about that, the more untrue those statements are. Young Judaea and Judaism aren't my only communities. Although they are a couple of them, but they aren't the only. I'm also apart of the Stevenson community, the Buffalo Grove community, and probably more that I can't think of right now.
There is more to my life, then just Young Judaea and Judaism. I got to really understand through the course of this year. I also realized where I stand within my communities, for my Stevenson community I am a student learning, for my Buffalo Grove community I am a resident.
I love being involved and I love being apart of something bigger then myself. Although Judaism and Young Judaea will always be a huge part of my life. And I'm glad about how much I'm involved with Young Judaea, because this summer I get to work at the camp.

Racism

My parents have taught me not to be racist, and I try not to be. But there are certain references that societies believe that makes us all a bit racist. For example, whites are good and blacks are bad. That statement isn't true. What makes a black person different from a white person? All it is, is their skin tone. It shouldn't matter what skin color a person has. Also We are the way we are by our nature and our nurture. Where you grew up and how you were raised is what is going to determine the kind of person you are. You are shaped by your community, not by the color of your skin.

Monopoly

Yesterday we played monopoly. The way we played monopoly had a few different rules to it. Everyone in the group would belong to a social class. The way we knew what social class we where in was by rolling the dice. Depending on how high you rolled depended on what class you were put into. I rolled the lowest number so I was in the lower social class. As the game went on I became broke. I started with about $300 and ended up with just $6. I wasn't a smart consumer. I spent most of my money when I had the chance. It wasn't a wise decision. Playing monopoly is a good teaching skill when it comes to money. You shouldn't spend your money right away. You should budget and watch were your money goes. Especially if you don't have a lot, like me. I've been raised in an upper-middle class, so we have enough money to survive. My family saves and budgets a lot. I've learned when to spend and when to save. There are to many people that will have a good amount of money will just go out and spend it and will be left with practically nothing.

Classes

Everyone in this country at least is related to some sort of class. The class i live in is upper-middle class. We watched a movie the other day about how classes can be picked out by what food you eat. For example white bread, its common a lot of people eat. You will probably see a poor person eating it, but would a rich person eat it? Also would a poor person eat some rich type of bread, even if it was free? Probably not, well for sure they didn't in the movie. The food we eat, the way we dress, and the way we talk can sometimes symbolize what class we are from. We cannot train a poor person act and look like a rich person even if they where given a lot of money that day. A class is a thing that your born into.

Prison

More and more people are locked up in prison everyday. Here in America we have the most people locked up. People are locked up for dealing drugs, stealing cars when the get out of an institution, taking illegal drugs. Some of these people in my mind should be going to prison they should be going somewhere for help. Prison isn't going to help many people. In class we watched 30 days where Morgan went to live in a prison for 30 days and was treated the same as any other prisoner. We got to see how lonely and boring it was. The prisoners didn't even get to go outside, except once a week. All they do is eat, sleep, and play card games or read. There is no structure there is nothing that they are doing to prevent them from doing what they did to get in prison, its just eat and sleep. I wouldn't want to live that life, and it seems like they do because once they get out they commit the same crime.

Masculinity

This whole week we've been talking about masculinity. Men try their best to be attractive, as much as women try their best to look attractive. The difference is men try to be strong and muscular and women try to look pretty. We are all victims of this. Many men believe that being violent is the best way to show their masculinity, but it isn't. Yesterday in class we learned about Aikido. Aikido is similar to martial arts. The difference is you don't severely injure your opponent. In my opinion its a better way to defend yourself. I think more people should learn about it, I know I would love to learn more. It seems like it could benefit a lot of people, especially men who think their tough.

Advertisement influence

The society we live in today believes that we should be like the men and women that we see in advertisements and in movies/shows. We should be perfect. The perfect woman is tall, gorgeous, thin and curvy. The perfect man is tall, handsome, and muscular. There are woman who try to become the perfect women by getting surgery done. For example I have a cousin she doesn't like her nose so she decided to get a nose job. Why couldn't she have just left her nose alone? What is the perfect nose? Also I have a friend who didn't think she was skinny enough. She found herself to be overweight, she became anorexic. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know how. I tried my best to tell her everytime I talked to her that she is fine, and that she doesn't need to lose weight. That was a few years ago. She did get help for her problems. Now she got over the anorexia and is more confident in herself.