on in the home, and the omnipresent MTV-style of identifying what was "cool" and what was not. My age places me at the beginning of adulthood รป not fully mature, but not an adolescent. I am therefore not dependent upon parents or caretakers for sustenance, but I am not yet ready to be fully individuated fm my family and the support is provides me.
I am a college student. This means that I have not as yet completed by education and that I have dreams and aspirations that are not yet fulfilled. It means that I value learning for its own sake and because, quite frankly, I recognize that education holds the key to social and economic advancement in a highly competitive society that is increasingly focused on knowledge workers.
While attending school, I also work at a job that pays my bills and makes my courses possible. My job is satisfying but limited; it is necessary but unfulfilling. It is a stepping stone, coupled with my education, to bigger and better things. Ultimately, the fact that I work sends a message of some significance: I am a motivated person who recognizes the importance of self-sufficiency and is not afraid to take on multiple challenges simultaneously.
Having described these basic "facts" about who I am, my task now becomes more complex. I must explore such issues as my relationships with friends, family and social groups or organizations and how these relationships affect my development and shape my identity. I must examine the constructs of biology and gender, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, culture and spirituality. These constructs, as described John Macionis (2003), all directly shape individual development. They are aspects of the formative influences that, beginning at birth and even before, will coalesce to crate a unique individual who may share certain characteristics with members of a number of groups, but who are nevertheless a unique person. Indeed, As Macionis (2003) has p...