Blog #3

My first quiz I took, I chose to take the Weapons IAT. My outcomes displayed that I tend to moderately associate blacks with weapons and white with harmless objects, 30% was the value. I found these results to actually be quite surprising because I didn’t tend to favor either side I just took the quiz and these were my results. It’s surprising to me because I am not the one to judge based on race. I am that person that quotes “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and the color of your skin doesn’t depict whether you carry a dangerous weapon or not. People do carry weapons for protection and I believe that is okay but to judge someone as “dangerous” because they look different represents what is wrong with our society. This quiz really opens my eyes because maybe I say I don’t judge but I could possibly be portraying this judgment with my actions. It’s our job as people to make everybody feel comfortable with our society; that’s why it’s called the land of the free. Our society and me (personally) need to do a better job of not discriminating because of race and treat everybody equally (The Golden Rule.) You don’t know what someone could be going through; so don’t be afraid to say, “Have a good day” to anybody because it could turn someone’s mood around.

On the second quiz, I chose to take Gender-Career IAT test. My results didn’t shock me as much on this quiz as it did on the first one. The outcomes showed that I moderately associate Male with Career and Female with Family, 32% was my value. Growing up, I didn’t have much because my parents were in a growing economy and neither of them had college degrees. My parents worked really hard on providing for my brother and I; they always made sure we had food in our stomachs and a roof over our head to keep us warm. My dad, at the time was making more money than my mom, in which seeing him as the male figure of the house and my brother and I saw him as role model, it made sense; but that doesn’t take away from what my mom did for us. She is the most kind hearted woman out there and I couldn’t be more blessed to have a mom who made sure we were always loved, always there when we needed her and always made sure we stayed on top of things for school. Those things she did represents what family stands for particularly the mother’s role in a family. I don’t think these roles are permanent, I am sure there are dads out there who play the mother role and mom’s out there that play the dad role. After my parents split up, my mom ended up being more successful then my dad, but they both make great money now because they worked hard and kept their heads high even when times were rough; they’re both my inspiration. In the sense that I don’t want to struggle like they did when I was young, but also in the sense that they’re drive brought them to the people they are today. My parents are the sole reason I am at THE Ohio State University and I can’t thank them enough for that. Thanking them for being my inspiration, to keep me going and get a degree. I love my mom and dad more than anything in the world and I’m glad their experiences guided to be where I am today.

On my last quiz, I chose to take the Age IAT test. My results tended to bring a little shock to me but not too much. I inclined more towards young people; it said I have a strong preference for Young people compared to Old people, my value was 35%. I am very good at interacting with people and getting along, that’s why I chose to take this class. In high school, I had to take a class called Perry Service Learning, in which the class was rounded around helping the community and giving back to others. One of our objectives for this class was to volunteer, in which you had to have 4 hours of volunteering per week to get an A. I chose to volunteer at an Assisted living place called Emeritus, in which I had to interact with old people and play trivia games and just talk about life. I built a lot of strong relationships with these old people and made a lot of friends; but no friendship was made like the one I made with my friend Warren at the assisted living place. I liked building friendships with these old people but I found myself really loving to go back because of the relationship I built with him. He was like my second grandpa; he always knew how to make laugh and we talked about everything including war, girls, sports ect.  We always ate together, played games; I would take him on walks outside in his wheel chair and he would always whistle at the girls. The friendship I built with Warren was very important me because I never knew volunteering with elderly people would have such a big impact on my life. I learned so much from Warren and I am really thankful for that. Without this experience, I wouldn’t have been able to realize the impact I can have on other people lives. My teacher always gave me good feedback and told me the people at Emeritus love when I come. Most importantly, I won’t forget the impact Warren had on my life, he changed me and made myself a better person and I was really sad to hear that he wasn’t there to see me graduate high school; it killed me inside and I knew I just lost one of my best friends; but I knew the impact I had on his life was great while it lasted but what he doesn’t know is he changed my life forever. I’ll never have a friend like Warren and I am really grateful I got the experience I did with Warren and Emeritus.

I guess being in college and being surrounded by students that are nearly the same age as me, suggests that I prefer younger to older people but you can’t let one test depict who you are. I’m good with young and old people and I have had great experiences with both. I’ll always remember my college experience when I graduate and all the friends I made and how much fun I had; but none of these friendships have had the impact on my life then my experience at Emeritus has.

I learned a lot from all these quizzes and I think all of them could be useful to teach someone something about himself or herself.