I am truly thankful that this course is offered at this university, and I am extremely glad that I enrolled in the class. I could go on for days about how much I learned throughout this semester from this class alone. I have always been a very open minded individual and have thought about many of the things that were discussed in class, but I was never able to have other people’s views on it from different cultures, races, and backgrounds. I am so appreciative of the young individuals who had educated, thoughtful opinions and comments about many of the subjects we came across. I always found myself getting either extremely interested in a topic, extremely comfortable with other topics, and very seldom getting extremely furious with touchy subjects. However, that was the bread and butter of the course and it was one of the many reasons I loved the course. Soc 119 forces you to step out of your own beliefs and to think of things from the complete opposite angle. One of my favorite lectures of the semester was when Sam showed us his TED lecture about empathy. I don’t think I can stress enough how important it is to consider someone else’s feelings and their struggles. Just because you hear of something or see it on the media that does not mean that you got the complete overall story! As the saying goes ‘there are always three sides to a story, one person’s side, the other person’s side, and then the truth!’ Another thing that I took out of Sam’s class was how much he never tried to force his views or beliefs on us, but more so pushed us to come up with our own conclusions about issues instead of believing everything we see in mainstream. I also believe that Sam wanted us to realize how much we unconsciously judge a book by its cover or in this instance judge a person by their skin complexion or how they look. For instance, when Sam made us answer questions such as who we thought would be smarter at mathematics or quantitative assignments and the majority of the class assumed that it was Asian-Americans when in fact that was not true. He also showed the class, how during a job interview a white man who has been to prison before is more likely to get a job then a black man who has not. There were a lot of things that really stood out to me during the semester and it was very refreshing to hear other perspectives on things and also sharing my own beliefs with the class! I was overall a great experience and I will definitely continue to recommend that every Penn State student take this course before they graduate!

I feel that many people are not as aware of their sexual potentials, and that may be a huge factor in why men and women don’t acquire their sexual satisfaction to its fullest extent. A lot of this may have to do with how you’re raised and how society is just beginning to evolve within the sexual spectrum. We can trace these standards all the way to hundreds of years ago when the only purpose for sex, intercourse for that matter, was for the man’s satisfaction and to reproduce. If we learned more about being comfortable with our bodies and the bodies of our opposite sex we would be able to learn about how to stimulate each other for maximum pleasure. As we learned in class many women don’t experience an orgasm during intercourse, and when they do have an orgasm it’s through stimulation of the clitoris. Just to reiterate the fact that many of us lack knowledge on what should be one of the most pleasurable experiences of life, many women do not reach an orgasmic climax during ORAL SEX! The clitoris if one of the most sensitive places of a woman’s vagina and just a simple touch on it can begin to arouse a woman. Another reason many women do not achieve orgasms may be because it takes us much longer to get aroused and reach a climax, then it takes a man. A man is aroused within 4.5 seconds and can ejaculate much faster than a woman. Another reason may be because both women and men have no knowledge that there is such thing as a g-spot that exists within the upper wall of the vagina, which can be stimulated so that a woman can experience what many say, is the best orgasms of her life! Ejaculation of the g-spot can range from a small amount to a woman squirting out an excessive amount of clear, smell less water like substance! I personally cannot understand why after so much new findings of woman’s orgasms and sexual pleasures, a female would not want to tell their partner what it is they can do so that they can help them achieve that awesome orgasm. I feel that another explanation may be because women are nurturers and we tend to get satisfaction out of seeing the people we care about happy and satisfied, so we put our needs after theirs. Another reason may be because we don’t want to hurt our partner’s ego, by telling them that they did not fully satisfy our needs sexually. Another reason may because we could just get the satisfaction from the foreplay, the actual act, and the feeling of dependency we get from knowing that, someone gets so much enjoyment from being with you.

I was raised to be blind to color, sex, or any other outside features a person may have. I feel that we all focus entirely too much on how a person looks, dresses, or even how they speak. We all have are flaws and blemishes that some of us try to hide and others feel no shame in how they are perceived because they know that we are all different and far from perfect. Nevertheless, I do not believe that I would have felt any more sympathetic if Tammy was Native American, as opposed to her being White. After watching that video and also having personal experiences with seeing people live in those types of horrible conditions, it just pushes me to work a million times harder to achieve what I define as success. When I become successful I want to be able to give back not only to my community but also to those less fortunate then myself so that they can also prosper in life as well. I don’t believe that anyone should decide to help someone based on their race or sex. I am a woman of color and I understand that those two factors may be beneficial to me and life and also unbeneficial to me in life. I don’t agree with either circumstance because I feel that I am being categorized in either sense. If someone wanted to help me I feel that it should be because they genuinely wanted to help me and not because of my skin or the fact that I am a female. Race or any other features should never have anything to do with a person wanting to help out another person or not. I feel that we are all equal, we all need the same organs to survive, we all have the same emotions, and we all are living beings who feel. I understand that some people gravitate more to their families or where ever they feel like they fit in the most but besides that we should all be able to see ourselves as the same, despite cultural diversity. As a woman of color I sometimes feel that many people always feel like everyone of color wants everyone else to feel bad for them because of the history of racism and that we are all blind about the history of other’s also. That is completely false because even when I read about the holocaust or any other genocides, I have a huge sense of hurt and pain in my heart because I don’t look at race, I see a human being! I think that people need to be more open- minded and start seeing that race has nothing to do with empathy!

I could sit here and think of hundreds, possibly thousands of things that I would like, not just Americans, but all of the human population to be exposed to in their life time. It is hard to narrow these things down to one but I guess my choice would have to be that everyone should be aware and act on the fact that knowledge is power! I feel that once people truly understand the meanings of things and the reasons for why things have happened, are happening, and will happen that is when as a person you can begin to empathize. I think everyone as a whole should go beyond the school books and assigned readings. We should take the time out to do our own research and even go physically live whatever it is that we are curious about. I feel that there are many opportunities and if you are fortunate enough to be able to explore these wonderful chances you should definitely do so without hesitation! Especially knowing the history of our country as Americans, being able to learn was a privilege not a right! When someone challenges something you say and you are able to back up what you know is true with actual facts is one of the best feeling in the world! I also brought up the fact that you should seize the opportunity when presented to you when you are offered the chance because now we are living in a technology filled world, which is not horrible, but just about any person can tweak or completely change information on the web, which is where a great portion of our society relies so heavily on for our information. In other words it kind of reminds you of the “You can’t lie on the internet by Statefarm” commercial. Another reason why I feel that knowledge is power and one of the most important tools that you can have in your lifetime is because once you have knowledge and begin to empathize, you also begin to see the world in a different light and you will begin to live a more accepting life, not accepting to others, but you will be accepting of others. I feel that if one person is informed they will want to share what they know with others and it will hopefully be positively viral! I am not sure what method of art I would mainly use to get this message across but I know that I would try everything possible to let everyone know that they should seize every moment when it comes to being educated. I feel that music, art, poetry, or whatever type of media that is popular would be great ways to get my message across because it is essential to living a fulfilling life and possibly changing the world as we know it!

I feel like saying that I am completely against nepotism is unrealistic just because we are all human. For example, if you have been applying to endless jobs and going to interview week after week and suddenly there is a job opening at one of your relative’s place of employment. Your relative explains to you that the starting salary is $200,000.00, a paid three weeks’ vacation, seven personal days, premium benefits as well as maternal or paternal, and opportunity for raises and bonuses. I feel like you have to be honest with yourself and say that if you don’t accept the job on the spot you’re more than likely are going to take time to consider it. On the other hand, I feel that it is completely unfair for someone who is unqualified to receive a job then someone who has put their pain, sweat, and tears into acquiring that position. I know that personally that would kill me after spending so much time and money into my education to become a professional and then let someone who is uninterested come in and take my potential job right out of my hands. In addition to my previous “unfairness” statement I wanted to say that sadly but true enough life is all about unfairness and if everything was fair in life then nepotism, affirmative action, racism, money, etc would not exist. As far as affirmative action goes, I am on the fence about how I feel about it. I know that I have benefited from affirmative action and will continue to benefit from it throughout my life. A prime example can be as obvious as being a student here at Penn State. I am a female and I am also a minority, so I guess you can say I’m a double whammy and that the university killed two birds with one stone. However I feel that if I was accepted based on affirmative action and not my intellectual abilities as well as community services then I in a way feel that I do not want to be here. Why should I be granted a pass just because of my sexual orientation or my skin complexion? How far does the butt kissing go? I understand that in life we are going to have to endure some things that we don’t want to just to get where we need to be but I was raised to have self-respect and dignity for myself so accepting an offer based on my appearance and not qualifications infuriates me. I do not want to be offered a position to somewhere that I am not really welcomed. I feel like a good sum up of this question is to answer it with another question. Would you want somebody to give you something because they have to or because they are eager for you to have it?

I feel that the majority of the world is greedy for power and wealth. I am not saying that I look at every person and think that they are greedy but I do feel that at times in life we can all be a little or a lot selfish. Therefore, it does not surprise me that America helps other countries but makes sure that they benefit from it. As the saying goes “nothing in this world is free,” I guess in many instances this is true. As a matter of fact we do things for others but make sure we benefit from it here in America all the time. Everyone is always so eager to give away a donation or give to charity but we then turn around and claim them on our taxes at the beginning of the next year. Another thing that we do is let someone borrow money and charge them an interest rate when they repay you. I think that helping other countries and people in need is great and should be done amongst everyone. I am not quite sure where I stand as far as making money off of it and basically forcing Haiti to accept our aid. I do not agree with forcing them to accept our aid open handedly and putting a halt to them being able to produce and sell their own products. It is sad to see others try to degrade others just for their benefits. We should not only be giving aid to help these other countries in need but also allow them to progress so that they are not always dependent on us. Especially after watching the video in class and seeing how upset and frustrated the Haitians were that almost all of their customers were not purchasing their rice anymore. As for where I fall a bit confused or unsure of my position is because I am not exactly sure of how everything works and why it is that we charge for giving aid to other countries. America is already in debt pretty deeply so I am sure that if they don’t charge or benefit from giving aid then our economy would suffer even more. I am not saying that is accurate but it is only what I can come up with. I feel that we should continue to give aid to other countries even though we benefit from it also. I would not want to go ‘cold turkey’ and stop giving aid because I feel that it is helping Haiti or wherever else in many ways. I do also feel that it is hurting them and helping us in many ways also. However, as I stated before, there are seldom people who do things for others without expecting something in return.

I am a Christian and I feel like because of that I am taught not to be afraid of death because it will be the best experience you could never imagine. However, I am human and I have been scared to death of death! Around the age of 12 I came to accept that no matter what I did or anybody else did that I would die! I knew that death had no preferences because I had just been to my 18 year old cousins’ funeral. I believe that his death is what “woke me up”. I had been to many funerals sadly but everyone as far as I remembered were at least 65 or older by the time they died, but my cousin was still very young! Another reason his death helped me accept death is because I wanted to be able to reunite with him. When I found out about his death my mom just simply woke me up and said “They killed your cousin, come on get dressed.” I was devastated and I still am when I think about him in this present time, which is almost 8 years since his murder but I am kind of jealous because I feel like where ever he is, it has to be better than being alive. My belief very much derives from my religious belief. I guess my answer to the question is no. I say no because of my religious views and because of being so fed up with the evils of this world. I know it sounds very ridiculous to say or assume that life after death has to be better than life as it is because no one really knows what happens after death except for the people who are dead but they are not able to tell us what it is like. That also brings up the topic of ghost, which is a whole other discussion but I feel that it ties in well with the topic of afterlife. I feel that I am trying to live an “acceptable” life so that I can feel good about myself and that it is self-assuring but I do live to worship a higher power which is God, so I definitely take into consideration being able to go to heaven and live up to Gods’ commandments when I wake up every day and throughout the day. It is true that we may not know what happens to you or your soul for that matter, after you die but I feel that I am somewhat of a risk taker and I am very curious to know what is going to happen when the time is right! My biggest fear when it comes to death is leaving my loved ones!

Almost everything we discussed today in class, I have thought about at least once; especially in regards to my religion versus science. I have thought about these things time after time as an adolescent, yet I could never find the resources to help me come up with a conclusion. I felt that in order to say that my religion was the correct and true religion for me and that I needed to be open minded to others religion and even scientist’s theories. I began to ask my family members and that didn't get me very far. I then began to look evolution up on the internet and I also tried to speak to others about their religions. When I got to college fall of my freshman year was just basically a semester of take whatever floated my boat courses. With that being said, I decided to take a religious studies course. At this point I felt that I knew a lot about science and evolution and whatever else there is left to explain why this world we live in exist. During my religious studies class we studied Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This class was what I felt I needed in order to not so much question if I was in the right religious path, but more so uphold my beliefs. I learned a lot about all of these religions and even though I know that there are many more religions outside of these five, I still feel that I am in the right and true religion for me! I say that I am in the right religion for me because I do not want to disrespect anyone else’s beliefs and because after taking that course I feel that I can understand why other people may choose a religion other than mines. Outside of my religion one of the many reasons why I believe that there is a God or a higher power is because no one can seem to ever answer a question that I feel should be thoroughly thought about and hence forth explained for me to even consider questioning my beliefs. The question goes as follow: If you take away everything we know to exist, everything, the Earth, the sun, the planets, the galaxies, space, just completely take everything away, how do you explain how all of this came to be? No one can ever answer this question, so I feel that my logic in believing that there is a higher power is very much true in my life. I feel like I have always and will always be a Christian and never change what is near and dear to my heart, which is my religion. I felt like I went into depth on this point of the lecture because Sam asked the class how we knew we were in the right religion. I feel like I will never stop learning or being open to learning.

I felt over joyed to hear someone else’s perspective of how they viewed America from an Iranian stand point. I feel that it was great for the class to see that we are not hated by every Iranian and also for him and any other Iranians in the class to see that we all don’t hate them! I think that more of these chats or video streams should happen because we get to see and hear the truth directly from the source instead of feeding into and believing everything the media wants us to believe! I was also very surprised about how developed their country is and what the night life is like, which is very similar to our night life. That video and speaking to Maziar is proof that we should not believe what the media shows us and actually take the time out to explore and examine things so that you’re not susceptible to hypocrisy. I have to admit that I am guilty of not looking things up on my own but I have never judged or spoken badly about any other country, state, group of people, or person without doing a little research. I feel like as Americans or just humans in general we don’t take full advantage of the freedom to gain knowledge that is available to us. That brings me to another point in the conversation we had with Maziar when he stated how strict they are in Iran about certain things. I feel like as Americans we sometimes don’t realize how much freedom we have, which I do feel we are entitled to, but it was shocking to hear about how they were strict about dating! It is just something that I think is worth thinking about so that as a person you can become more humble. It was also refreshing to hear him speak about how Americans would be treated if they were to visit Iran. It shows how regardless of what ‘bad blood’ may be going on with our governments, they are still told to treat us with kindness and respect! I would like to say that I can relate, however I cannot say that I can completely relate because after all we are at war with their country, but in my home country Americans are pretty much praised! We are placed on a pedestal for being from the ‘land of freedom and opportunity’. I think a lot of that has to do with how we are portrayed in the media over there. I also thought it was quite shocking that Maziar watched American tv shows like Friends, Grey’s Anatomy, and How I met your Mother. Even his some of his favorite celebrities were shocking to me, like Usher! The overall conversation with Maziar was very enjoyable. I loved having the feeling of a natural bond with him, despite what our governments are going through. There was no hostility from either end as far as I’m concerned and it was an enjoyable experience!

I always try to be as open minded and understanding as possible. I understand that we all have our differences and views about different subjects. However, I will never assume that what I believe to be true is actually a fact; that’s ignorance. I can definitely see where the young woman was coming from as far as feeling like she is treated differently because she is from the Middle East. Nevertheless, I felt as if she was being a little self-centered in believing that we were all supposed to react negatively to her because she is from Iran. I feel like we are a very diverse class and almost everyone goes through some type of discrimination on a daily basis. The video that Sam showed in class at the beginning was very powerful and personally it is something that I have always thought about. I was raised to realize the world does not revolve around me and that I need to think about things from someone else’s perspective in order to even have a chance at speaking about why I feel the way I do. With that being said, I feel like after watching the video the young lady from Iran was still closed minded about putting herself in someone else’s shoes. She even stated that she would like for one of the ambassadors or soldiers to sit down with her and her family and have tea with them to see what they feel and there points of view. I find that to be quite contradictory because she has biases that all Americans feel that they have hatred towards her or her country. I feel like a lot of people could think like that, whites could say they’re the most hated race by blacks, minorities could say they’re the most discriminated against and that everyone white person doesn't like them, we could do this for days! I would just like to point out to her that not all Americans feel some type of hatred towards her or others from her country. We like her are looking from the outside in and for me that gives me no room to assume anything about anyone! I feel that every country prepares for wars and when they make the decision to go to war regardless of the reason, the citizens do not have the final say on whether we go to war or not. I don’t agree with a lot of the reasons we have had wars in the past but ultimately I cannot do anything about it. I will continue to be open minded about things in life because it helps me live a more appreciative and peaceful life; I can only hope that everybody does the same no matter how many negative encounters you are presented with because one person doesn't represent a whole.