Sociological Mindfulness/Imagination

Chesney Olson

Mr. Reints

Sociology

13 January 2020

Sociological Mindfulness/Imagination

            The Ted Talk video that we watched in class, at first glance, was very intense. It talked about the aspects of empathy and having different perspectives on the very far end of the radical spectrum. In our day to day lives, we usually don’t use our minds in quite this serious mindset, especially as seniors in high school. However, this video did open my eyes to how far sociological mindfulness can go and can get you in life. The speaker walked us through examples of important events that have happened or could potentially happen in our world to people of different backgrounds. The challenge for us was to try to put ourselves in the positions of other people whom we had very little to nothing in common, and these people were in situations that were a bit difficult for our minds to even grasp. It made me realize that throughout my life, I have viewed certain situations like a mirror; all I could see was what was on my side of the situation or what was familiar to me. Instead I should have viewed situations through a window so I could have seen what was also going on the other side and tried to understand things that were unknown to me.

            Looking back, there have been several times where I have been sociologically mindful. One example is from this past weekend. A girl from Miller was very sick the first day because of a condition that she has struggled with for many years involving intense migraines. She ended up vomiting at our first rehearsal and felt extremely embarrassed about the entire incident. I understood why she felt that way because if I was in her place and that had happened to me, I would have felt the exact same way. Because of this I went over to her, gave her a hug, and explained that she had absolutely no need to feel embarrassed. She could not have done anything to avoid the situation, and everyone understood why it happened. Nobody was judging her because at some point in almost every person’s life they will have an embarrassing moment like her own that could not be avoided. I then tried to relate an incident that happened to me to what happened to her.

            Another example of showing empathy has been being a big sister figure to my 10 year old cousin Adalynn. She has had a pretty rough life as her father is absent, and her mother has been periodically unstable. Because of this, my family helped raise Adalynn through a large portion of her early life. Throughout that experience I learned a lot of patience. Adalynn has a tendency to behave poorly, and it has taken a long time to realize that a lot of her actions are not necessarily her fault. She did not choose to be born into a broken, unstable family who was probably not ready to have and care for her. I have had to learn that whenever she is acting up, I have to take a step back from the situation and think about how much of this behavior is a result of her terrible circumstances. I still struggle with understanding how to deal with some of her behaviors and to remember that a large part of why she is the way she is is not because of her.

            The first person I would add to the list of “10 acts of courage that changed the world” would definitely be Harriet Tubman. She escaped slavery and instead of running away, she stayed in the line of fire in order to save people that were in the same predicament that she had just escaped. Her act of courage freed a tremendous amount of other slaves from the clutches of cruel owners, and it also was a large contributing factor to the ending of slavery. Another person I would add to this list would be George W. Bush. He was a huge contributor in the recovery of our nation after the attacks of 9/11. His act of courage not only saved our country at that point in time, but it ensured country that we have today and its future.

            I see myself fitting into the big picture of society by showing people what it means to see through each other’s eyes and care for one another. I am extremely lucky to have the opportunity to be able to spread the message of having different perspectives on such a large stage this upcoming year. After that, I plan continue caring for people and sharing my mindset as I go through college and hopefully going through medical school to become a doctor. Being a doctor would not only give me the chance to help make people physically healthy, but also mentally healthy.