Project Discripiton:
The mask project.
My mask:
Moment in Time essay
Moment In Time
I woke up in my warm bed a little drowsy so I went to the kitchen to find something to eat. I made myself a bowl of cereal and watched some cartoons on my TV. It was my favorite show--Johnny Test--on Cartoon Network. I laid on the couch watching the show for awhile, but I got bored when a different show came on. I decided that I wanted to go hang out with my friends. I left my warm and cozy apartment. It was a cold cloudy fall day. I went back inside to find a coat. I came back out and I could hear the leaves rustling in the biting wind. I walked down the stairs on the second floor, and I heard a bunch of muffled bass blasting from my neighbor Jake’s car. The bass from the black and red mustang vibrated through me and made the windows on the building shake like the way a cell phone vibrates on wood table.
I went over to my friend J’s house. I felt the knot in my stomach form as I walked up to his door. I waited outside for a couple minutes. His older brother opened the door, he was tall and his long hair was the color of obsidian. I glanced into the quiet, clean house. “Are you looking for J?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said and he went back inside. J opened the door. As we were walking down we met up with R we started talking and a subject came up. Rn started talking about how he liked smoking. I wanted to fit in even tho i felt uncomfortable. i wanted to impress them so i told them that there was a place near my house that had ashed cigarettes. r pulled out his lighter and he said i'm going to go get a piece of paper. j and i waited for a little bit then R came out again we went up to my house. we lit the paper on fire and i took a hit of it. it burnt my lungs bad. i started to cough a lot. then r found the bucket that all the cigarettes were put out. he went down to grab one when the old lady came out of her house and i handed the lit piece of paper to j a d they were sent home and i tough i was going to be in big trouble. so i blamed all of it on j and r. after a couple days we could hang out again they were mad at me and wanted to fight me because i blamed it on them. they said snitches get stitches.
As I reflect on the years that my family lived in subsidised housing, from age 6-9, I have mixed feelings. I can also see direct results of the socialization I had during my formative years.
My earliest years were in the small town, Mancos. My parents were still married, we lived in a log cabin in the woods, and we had all kinds of farm animals. My mom was a complete hippy, making us drink goat milk and running a preschool in our home. It was a sheltered environment and all of our friends, community, and kids at the preschool were white.
This all changed dramatically when my parents divorced. Our socio-economic status changed from white, middle class, intact family with extended family as resources, big house and yard to a single parent household in an apartment building that did not allow any pets at all in an urban neighborhood. I had to part with my beloved dog, Fozzy.
The population in the apartments was the first time I felt like a minority. The neighbors were Navajo, Hispanic, and mixed families. I still remember the liquor bottles that were smashed at our front door and my mom being afraid to go out after dark. Not long after moving in, the DEA did a sting operation on Jose’s mom downstairs. My mom said that they had been dealing meth.
Even though I was friends with the other kids in the apartment building, there was always a feeling of exclusion and anger towards me because I was white. I didn’t know it then, but I see now that their anger might have been because of my white privilege. We only lived there for three years but some of the families have been in those small apartments for generations. We were able to move out and into a house (and have pets again!) after only three years. This was probably due to the differences in our cultural norms. Even though we had a similar socio- economic status as the other families, we felt that we had choices in where we live. And we moved out as soon as possible for more space and better living conditions.
Even though I see the differences in our socialization, I also see the ways where, because of our age and gender, we connected (even though it was in breaking rules!). I still see some of the kids from The Apartments around town.
I woke up in my warm bed a little drowsy so I went to the kitchen to find something to eat. I made myself a bowl of cereal and watched some cartoons on my TV. It was my favorite show--Johnny Test--on Cartoon Network. I laid on the couch watching the show for awhile, but I got bored when a different show came on. I decided that I wanted to go hang out with my friends. I left my warm and cozy apartment. It was a cold cloudy fall day. I went back inside to find a coat. I came back out and I could hear the leaves rustling in the biting wind. I walked down the stairs on the second floor, and I heard a bunch of muffled bass blasting from my neighbor Jake’s car. The bass from the black and red mustang vibrated through me and made the windows on the building shake like the way a cell phone vibrates on wood table.
I went over to my friend J’s house. I felt the knot in my stomach form as I walked up to his door. I waited outside for a couple minutes. His older brother opened the door, he was tall and his long hair was the color of obsidian. I glanced into the quiet, clean house. “Are you looking for J?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said and he went back inside. J opened the door. As we were walking down we met up with R we started talking and a subject came up. Rn started talking about how he liked smoking. I wanted to fit in even tho i felt uncomfortable. i wanted to impress them so i told them that there was a place near my house that had ashed cigarettes. r pulled out his lighter and he said i'm going to go get a piece of paper. j and i waited for a little bit then R came out again we went up to my house. we lit the paper on fire and i took a hit of it. it burnt my lungs bad. i started to cough a lot. then r found the bucket that all the cigarettes were put out. he went down to grab one when the old lady came out of her house and i handed the lit piece of paper to j a d they were sent home and i tough i was going to be in big trouble. so i blamed all of it on j and r. after a couple days we could hang out again they were mad at me and wanted to fight me because i blamed it on them. they said snitches get stitches.
As I reflect on the years that my family lived in subsidised housing, from age 6-9, I have mixed feelings. I can also see direct results of the socialization I had during my formative years.
My earliest years were in the small town, Mancos. My parents were still married, we lived in a log cabin in the woods, and we had all kinds of farm animals. My mom was a complete hippy, making us drink goat milk and running a preschool in our home. It was a sheltered environment and all of our friends, community, and kids at the preschool were white.
This all changed dramatically when my parents divorced. Our socio-economic status changed from white, middle class, intact family with extended family as resources, big house and yard to a single parent household in an apartment building that did not allow any pets at all in an urban neighborhood. I had to part with my beloved dog, Fozzy.
The population in the apartments was the first time I felt like a minority. The neighbors were Navajo, Hispanic, and mixed families. I still remember the liquor bottles that were smashed at our front door and my mom being afraid to go out after dark. Not long after moving in, the DEA did a sting operation on Jose’s mom downstairs. My mom said that they had been dealing meth.
Even though I was friends with the other kids in the apartment building, there was always a feeling of exclusion and anger towards me because I was white. I didn’t know it then, but I see now that their anger might have been because of my white privilege. We only lived there for three years but some of the families have been in those small apartments for generations. We were able to move out and into a house (and have pets again!) after only three years. This was probably due to the differences in our cultural norms. Even though we had a similar socio- economic status as the other families, we felt that we had choices in where we live. And we moved out as soon as possible for more space and better living conditions.
Even though I see the differences in our socialization, I also see the ways where, because of our age and gender, we connected (even though it was in breaking rules!). I still see some of the kids from The Apartments around town.