How sociology has changed me

In  sociology on the first day I honestly didn't really know what to expect. All I really knew was that I didn't need to take a final for the class. Also, at the time I was not the most sociological mindful person. However, I feel that I have gained a lot through this class. Unlike my normal classes, I do not feel like I have gained a great deal about an academic subject, but instead I have learned about how the world works and how others perceive information. For example, throughout the course of the movie 'Crash,' (possibly my favorite part of the year since I love that movie) I realized through the characters how I have a starting perception of people before I even talk to them. This can be seen through my recognition of how they are deviant. For example, when I see people who are in wife beaters, I quickly make the assumption that they are part of a gang. However, in the movie, the lock fixer in the wife beater seemed like a really good guy. While I do realize that I may still have this perception, I will now be more likely to give a conscious effort to treating them like everyone else when I meet them. I also realized that the way I dress could give my teachers a specific perception of who I am out of school. Therefore, I think I need to make sure when I get to college that I dress in an appropriate manner so that my professors see me as a studious person and not a complete slacker. In addition, I feel that the lessons about  the importance of beauty for girls was a great learning experience for me. Prior to this class I never really payed attention to how much girls use products to give themselves a deceptive outer appearance. However, I have been paying a lot more attention to this, and I am starting to realize important makeup and physical feature are to girls. One great example of this is in my gym class. In this class, I know 3 sophomores. Out of these three girls, 2 of them have had plastic surgery (one a nose job and the other got her ears tucked back). I personally find it to be ridiculous that these girls feel so awful about their appearance at such a young age that they have to get it changed. I as a boy realize that I have in my opinion large ears but I'm not going to get plastic surgery for it. I think of it as a unique feature that I possess. Therefore, I feel that sociology has probably affected my life more than any academic class ever could. It had a great change on how I perceived the world and the people I meet.