My Sociology Term Paper Taught Me to Be Myself
January 27th, 2010
My Sociology Term Paper Taught Me to Be Myself
I was never a big flirt or a girl who got a lot of guys. I was always envious of the super popular crowd. They were cool, good looking and really very smart. I was not. I just didn’t understand what aspects of a person made them get into the popular crowd. Did it all fall on looks? I envied the way the cool girls got all the great looking guys. I marveled at how they talked to them with such ease. I for one couldn’t do. I literally turned to mush every time a cute guy would talk to me. I was such a nerd. I couldn’t even look guys I liked in the eye. My sophomore year in high school was the worst. I met Russell. He was the best looking guy I had ever seen in my entire life. And he actually paid attention to me. He didn’t walk by and pretend like I didn’t exist. He acknowledged me and was really nice. This made me really want to study the cool girls since I wanted Russell to like me. I decided to write a sociology term paper.
In order to write my sociology term paper I began casually observing the popular crowd for hours at a time. I would watch them and take notes during lunch time. I payed attention to their general mannerisms. And tried to mimic their snappy comebacks and general conversation flow. One afternoon as I was following Stacy, one of the popular crew, I literally ran into Russell. He smiled as he helped pick up my term papers and glanced at the critical analysis research I had compiled over weeks of observation. I quickly grabbed my belongings from his hand and smiled. He called me by name, looked me right in the eye and asked me how I was doing. I couldn’t talk. I could see that all the work I had done for my research paper was falling by the wayside. He then asked me If I wanted to get a some coffee after school. I could barely choke out a yes before I made a quick exit.
I ran home and decided to work on my sociology term paper. I thought this evening would be my one shot with Blake and I didn’t want to blow it. My term paper consisted of five strong observations I had made. I stated all five points in the beginning paragraph and the last sentence of the introduction was my thesis statement. I allotted one paragraph for each point I made and had one supporting source for each using the MLA citation method. I had a strong conclusion where I reiterated my five ideas and brought back my thesis statement.
That evening I met up with Russell at the local coffee shop. He was so much better looking up close. We sat down and he talked, I listened. I tried to incorporate the silly comments and comebacks I saw Stacy and the other girls make but I knew I was coming off sounding ridiculous. He finally reached across the table touched the top of my hand and told me all he needed me to be was myself. I could see my sociology term paper had served me well. It taught me exactly how not to act.
