Personal Narrative: How Society Changed My Life

Society has shaped me in many different ways. One of the biggest impacts that has definitely stood out during my lifetime is having such a unique culture and slowly assimilating to more of an American lifestyle. Having parents who have immigrated from different countries is starting to become more “normal” than it was in the past due to the United States becoming more and more diverse. My mother immigrated to the United States from Lebanon when she was six years old and my father immigrated from Syria when he was three years old. Both of my parents are Armenian, and living in a mostly white community, like Redondo Beach, gave most of my neighbors somewhat of a culture shock. Being culturally different from my peers resulted my society to exert to ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and social conformity. During my elementary school years I experienced a lot of ethnocentrism. Almost all, if not all, of the people I associated
My school friends would tell me that the clothes my family members bought me were not cool enough and I would then look for clothes that they would approve of. I started acting more like my peers because if I didn’t they would point it out and I would feel as if I couldn’t act the way I wanted to. Not only did I experience social conformity from my friends but also from my family. If I came home from school acting the way my friends would, my family members would scold me into acting the way they wanted me to act. My family member also disapproved of many articles of clothing that were in-style at the time and they would bring me clothes that they approved of. I experienced social conformity from my American community and from my Armenian community, throughout my life I felt like I was juggling two different lives to please and be accepted by both