WYWTD- Conclusion

Now that the ten weeks are over, my blog series will come to a close. At first, I found it difficult to observe my reactions because I had come to learn that my reactions were tamed. In this sense, I mean that I followed the "proper" rules of society. In many instances I did want to act one way but did another due to these rules. Soon enough however, I was able to slowly draw out my initial reactions rather than my tamed reactions. In regards to the tame reactions, I found that many situations called for one to hold back for the betterment of an issue. Overall, I learned that our reactions are formed specifically as a result of social structure. The social structure calls for people to be concerned and aware of their surroundings and consequences. Without this social structure people would act on their instinct but this would do more harm than good.

WYWTD-Talking to the police

So a few weeks ago, my friend Steph and I had to shoot some footage for my Arts 60 class. Our plan was to film an officer pulling someone over. Steph and I were determined to get this footage, especially since our classmates said that we wouldn't be able to do it. Anyways, Steph and I went over to the UCI police station and got the nerve up to ask if they would mind if we filmed them pulling someone over. We ended up being able to get film what we needed, thanked the officers and left. After, Steph and I were talking about how crazy it was that we were able to film the officer. I eventually came to the realization that if Steph wasn't there with me, I probably would not have gone to the station at all. I brought this up to Steph and she said the same thing. To put it simply, I was intimidated by the police. Although I have never met these particular officers, I was automatically scared mostly due to the stigma that surrounds police. I felt that if I went with Steph, there was more strength within me. I thought that was an odd way of feeling but I guess that quote "strength in numbers," holds a lot of significance. Anyways, INTIMIDATION would have been the reason if Steph would not have come along, but I'm glad she did because it makes for a semi-unique story.

WYWTD- They don't know me

So I was thinking about my roomie and her situation that I mentioned below. Normally my roomie, Nikki, wouldn't do something like that and I was trying to analyze why she did actually stopped so she could piss this girl off. I mean I know that girl almost hit her car but Nikki is passive aggressive not aggressive. But I guess one could argue that her just stopping is a passive aggressive action even though I do not agree, I feel that she was moderately aggressive. Anyways that is neither here nor there.
My Question: Why did she do that?
Well besides the obvious factor that the girl almost banged up her car, I felt that she did it simply because she didn't know the person. If that girl would have been me, she probably would have had the same amount of anger but simply because she knows me she would have probably just put stuff in my trash can. I know that sounds random but since we are roommates she could just "get me back," passive aggressively, at home and she knows that when people fill up my trash can with their own trash it gets on my nerves. My point however, is that she would not have acted the way she did with that girl if it were me or anyone else she knew or liked. I think this is true for most people though. I know I react differently to people I know than people I don't. Maybe it's because we know them that we base our reactions on our relationship with them and if we have no relationship with them then our reaction unfriendly, to say the least. I never really looked at it that way before.

WYWTD- She did it!!

So earlier on today my roomie and I went to Albertsons, the one on campus and california, to go buy some cookies. We went in, got them, and we were leaving the parking lot. Since my roomie and I live in AV housing, which is up on California, we were going to exit the shopping center on California. Right at that exit, there is a Washington Mutual on the right and their personal parking lot. Usually the people coming from that lot stop because they dont have the right away. As my roomie drove by that area, there was this girl driving from the WaMu lot and she almost hit us because she wasn't looking!! Literally she was like 3 inches away! To add to this, she didn't even say sorry or give us a "sorry" look or a "sorry" body motion/language. She just looked away and Nikki was pissed. It was funny because Nikki was so mad she started calling her a B.... and that girl didn't even hear her. Well the best part was that my roomie just felt she had to get back at her so since this girl was right behind us trying to turn right onto california from the center, Nikki decided to just stop and not turn right and she waited there for a short while not moving her car. Man that girl was angry and so Nikki felt content.
When all this happened it honestly reminded me of this because she actually did what she wanted to do. I really think it is because she didn't know her though but I will get into that later on this week. Anyways I thought it was funny, you just had to be there.

WYWTD- Pick Your Battles

Yesterday, one of my friends had been getting on my nerves. To describe to you briefly, she has been going through a very selfish phase in which she talks on and on about how bad she has it (even though I have definitely seen worse), acting in a way that affects others but only cares about herself, and continuously asking me to take care of her. I usually have a very high tolerance and I have put up with her b.s. for quite some time now. Most of her other friends have given up on her because of her constant selfishness but I still have held true to our friendship. Anyways, things have been building up and the yesterday I basically had the end of it. We were supposed to be going to this event and she asked me to take care of her, as she always does, and I just simply said "I'll watch over you but I'm not going to be your mother." She didn't really reply but just kept on drinking. Soon enough she was drunk and unfortunately she is a sloppy drunk and she was off doing mischievous things and making a fool of herself. I tried to stop her and just sit her down but then she started cussing me out saying that I don't know how to have fun and that I "won't let" her have fun. By that time, on top of everything else in the past, I was furious. I really wanted to smack her across the face and say "Hey you look like an absolute Fool!! You need to stop drinking and get ahold of yourself and stop being selfish!!!" But I didn't. Instead I just walked away and left her for the rest of the night. Not only was I against making a scene, especially in front of people that I do know, I figured that yelling at a drunk person was not a smart thing to do. I had to pick my battle, and that wasn't it. Of course I did talk about it to her today but my full feelings about her selfish situation has not been revealed yet to her. I noticed that I am waiting to choose my battle because once I do, I know I will fight and yell at full force. Sometimes certain situations are just not worth yelling at someone for, but every now and then they really are.

Pick and Choose your Battles.

WYWTD- Repetition...

As I continue trying to understand what holds us back from doing what we want to do, I constantly run into previous reasons. However, those reasons seem to vary within the reasons. For example, I keep finding that one reason people restrain from their initial reaction is because they are afraid of the consequences. But while "consequences" is one category, there is a scale within that category. The scale within the category is not a scale similar to 1 to 10 but the scale is more like sub-levels. Sub-levels in this particular category could be authoritarian, familial, public, or personal. Anyways, the point of me mentioning the sub-level was that I kept running into very similar situations with some different details, so the same category but different sub-level, and therefore some situations that I might write in future blogs may be just like this.

WYWTD- UCI Parking Nazi!!

Earlier this February I was oh so lucky to receive a parking ticket from none other than the parking nazis of UCI. Yes I know it was my fault but I still have the right to feel bitter about the situation. Anywho, it was a $52 ticket and I knew if i told my mom she would flip a b, so I did the best thing for my life and I didn't tell her. I just figure I would go to the parking office, pay the ticket in cash (because she checks all my transactions) and just be $50 down on my luck. About 3 days ago, I get a phone call from mom saying I got a parking ticket and in my head I was like "I better sit down and get ready to be yelled at and told how irresponsible I am." She began telling me that I should refute because in her mind it wasn't true but I told her it was and there was no way for me to refute the ticket. She then asked me when I was planning on telling her, my response "Never," and why didn't I tell her. After the phone call, her last question "Why didn't you tell," remained in my head for a few reasons. One was because I felt lucky she did not get as mad as I thought she would, and secondly because I felt it had to do with this blog. There have been a lot of things that I wanted or should have done but did not simply because I was scared of my mom or I was scared of something else. I would not necessarily say I did not want to face the consequences of my actions, but I was scared of the reactions I would receive from her. In my opinion, fear is a restraint from allowing you to do what you want to do.

FEAR.