Life Happens

Earning just over $16,000 a year, keeping a functioning family is tough work.  Working for $5.85 an hour at a entry level job that doesn't provide health benefits or paid vacation doesn't allow our family to afford the finer things in life.  Living outside of the Metropolitan area in a two bedroom apartment, public transit isn't available so we have a used car.  Gas and insurance payments are another monthly expense that takes away from our two kids being able to get things they want.  Simple things like going out to the movies with friends are not an option for my two children.  We have a son that is 17 years of age and a 6 year old daughter with a learning disability.  Our daughter has to meet with a tutor outside of school to receive extra help.  This is another lump sum out of our budget.  After paying for the apartment, utilities, tutor bills, gas, insurance, food, clothing and car payments, our yearly budget of $16,000 doesn't stretch far.  Managing a family on a budget like this is stressful.  Although my wife and I are both working we can't afford to do things.  We were forced to not have health insurance because our budget didn't allow it so we hope nothing happens with anybody in the family.  After cutting every extra expense we managed to save just over $1,000 a year.


After receiving our life card, all of our money was taken. We were told to buy each child school uniforms. These uniforms took our entire savings resulting in us having to cut back on the little we had. To accommodate the twist in the path we had to get rid of our car and each person had to sacrifice personal items. Another thing to cut back on was on our daughters tutoring. After making all these changes we were able to afford the uniforms and some mandatory needs each month.

Group Dynamics

I don't have a "group" as much as I have a bunch of friends.  I eat lunch with a group in which I don't always spend time with them.  I would say I am in multiple groups and spend time with all different people.  Some I am closer to than others but not always are they in the same "group".  Because I am with other people I feel like the middle man sometimes when others talk about not liking a person I am around.  The reason I don't like to be with one group is that I feel like when people put a social "tag" on some people, I'm not included.  If they were to say "those are the soccer kids" I'm technically associated but not always included in the comment. Although this "tag" isn't that big of a deal, I don't want to be known as someone that does something I don't do.

Within the groups that I am a part of, I believe I would be the disrupter. I am the one that always tries to make a joke out of things.  Within the multiple groups I am with, the people I am around have similar interests.  I play soccer therefore I hang out with people that play soccer.  In that group I can tell who is the leader and who WANTS to be the leader.  One individual is in charge and doesn't typically care.  The role was just given to him.  There is one individual that always tries to be the leader and thought of as the higher power.  In the other group I am with, everyone just likes to have fun.  In this group we all have similar likes throughout multiple seasons and not just one.  However, in this group there is a definite blocker on ideas.  One individual is so opinionated that sometimes you just keep quiet to avoid his remarks. 

Values

I believe that many people's values are influenced by others. I for one believe that what you value most is your own decision. My main value in life is dedication. If I start something, I will finish it. Selling myself short only hurts myself so I choose to better myself with every encounter I may face.  I use dedication in sports, schooling and at work. Dedication ties into hard work or a good sense of work ethic. Working hard for something makes the result more rewarding. A good work ethic is important to get you through life in a positive manner. With age comes respect. Respecting others will result in respect being returned to you. I believe not only that you should respect your elders, but that you should respect everyone. Everyone deserves respect unless given a reason to not do so.  Although respect seems small, it is the foundation of everything. I use respect in everything I do. I have learned to value respect because I appreciate being respected by others. My family is a large aspect of my values. I value their encouragement and appreciation of my doings. They are there for me every day through everything so I can say that they are a positive aspect of my life.  Lastly, I value my education. My education keeps me on the path to success.  I use education everyday because it is the building blocks of everything. My family also values education which gives me more reason to appreciate it. I am thankful to receive an education.

The way I act today has been influenced tremendously by the things I do, and whom I do them with. When hanging out with the guys I could act spontaneous and not care about others thoughts of me. While around those who are not as close to me I may act shy or like I'm holding back. I've noticed throughout life, certain aspects of society has morphed my way of acting or thinking to what is right and what is wrong. For example, I never thought I would be blogging. After keeping an open mind I realized it isn't all that bad. Today in this day and age, technology has become a major aspect of communication. I believe how much you communicate or what you talk about is correlated by your gender. Being a male I feel as though I don't talk as much as a female. This isn't always true for everyone. Sometime different social groups talk more than others. Social groups are all different and society all thinks of them differently, some bad or some good. I for one don't think that how much you talk can be because of your race. Although some may talk more than others around you, they may talk all the time around someone else. Whom someone talks to may be judged due to their race. Society always has their say on things, although many are false stereotypes many follow these and have run their life to correspond to their likes.