When trying to figure out what I want to pursue for the rest of my life, I’ve struggled to resist the social norms that are referred to in Module 2 of Insight to Impact. I think I don’t necessarily know what I want to do and while it also seems like my peers have already figured it all out, it’s easier to fall prey to the conventional standards of success. As mentioned in the video, each nation and community has its own standards of success, but one in the United States that I’ve struggled with is that in our capitalistic society success is directly associated with income. The notion of individualism in both positive and negative situations really resonated with me as well. There’s so much stigma around annual income and earning a comfortable income, however, to me it seems that “comfortable” income is somewhat arbitrary as our society is more competitive than collaborative, in that you must have tangible or materialistic aspects to back up or evidence your success. Since arriving on campus and even before, I’ve had this conversation with my parents a bunch of times. My dad is an artist and my mom is an art consultant. Generally speaking, if I were to tell people that that’s what my parents do, there might be an assumption that being both parts of the art world means they don’t make as much of a living as some of my friends’ parents. While this may be true, we’ve talked about the importance of loving what you do, whether that comes at the price of a slightly lower salary.
I think there’s an additional difficulty in that society assumes that if you’re not making a lot of money or as much money as someone else, you’re simply not as smart or dedicated, or ambitious. This assignment of false characteristics is what’s proven hard for me to overcome as I’ve always given all of my efforts and I fear that if I pick a career that isn’t one of those doctor, lawyer, etc. careers I’ll be categorized as not being competent enough to achieve those professions. It’s hard to know that you’ve worked so hard and that a career choice because of mainstream media will make judgments and have preconceived notions of you based on that choice.
Habitus seemed to relate to familiar concepts that essentially show that you are a byproduct of all of your experiences and the environments that you place yourself in. However, it extends beyond this as it was interesting to think about how these habits or behavioral changes may be conscious or subconscious. Identity consonance was validation of existing behavior whereas identity dissonance may appear when trying to suppress certain personal aspects to fit the professional norms. It’s interesting to think about how in times of change and transition, even if you want to separate the personal and professional it’s quite difficult and by taking charge or identifying moments of identity consonance and dissonance you can better know yourself and cultivate empowerment.
