Post 10: English Language Challenges

 To be very honest, I think English is a subject that I have neglected this semester. I've had a hard time keeping up with the blogs and the classes. I'm not proud of that, because I think you can get a great deal of learning out of this field, but in this semester I was very stressed and it was difficult for me to organize my time. Anyway, I think it has helped me a lot to write, speak and think in English more often.

I must admit that sometimes I didn’t blog because it was a bit difficult for me to connect with the content that was requested, that is, thinking about the future at such an uncertain time as the pandemic left me a bit existential and sad. However, now that I wrote the blogs, I think they helped me to have a common thread between what I am doing today to build a future in which I feel good about myself, at least in academic terms. Although I had a hard time seeing it that way.

I still have many things to improve to be able to feel comfortable, for example, listening to people that speak in English I can understand almost 100% of what they say - as long as they have good pronunciation - but writing or speaking in English is something that still is difficult to me. Especially the pronunciation, but I know it's just a matter of practice, and I also hope that one day I can go to an English-speaking country to practice it firsthand.

Since I left school, I have tried to practice my English in different ways so as not to lose my level, for example, listening to a lot of music in English, looking for the lyrics and trying to learn them or watching movies or series in English with English subtitles to be able to practice reading and listening. Also, as a matter of fact, my grandmother is an English teacher so we usually speak in English at home so that my little brother does not understand us.

Post 9: Changes to my Study Programme

  Despite the fact that I believe that my career has a good level regarding the content they deliver, there are many things that I have observed in these three years as a student that have left me wanting to change things. I’m going to start from the most general to the most particular.

In the first place, regarding the sociology curricular, I think it’s very well thought out regarding the gradual advance of the contents. For example, the signatures of theory progress simultaneously as the curricular progresses, in this sense, it’s achieved that some signatures dialogue with each other in the same semester. However, there are many gaps around subjects that should be mandatory or have more emphasis, but are present to meet a “quota”. I'm talking about gender signatures, for example.

Hope you don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed the sociology of the genre! But I think that the way of approaching the subject was very expository and there was not much space for reflection, debate or dialogue. I recognize that in online classes it is difficult to achieve a participation or conversation as enriching as it was achieved in person, but that is not why an instance can be missed where gender, gender roles, the position of women, micromachisms, masculinities, ways of relating, among other aspects.

Another flaw that I see in the curricular is that it should necessarily have a branch of sociology of environmental crisis. At the end of the day, I believe that the objective of this career is to have a comprehensive vision of society and the environmental crisis is something that is happening now, therefore, it’s important that as professionals we have tools to be able to cope with this crisis in our future jobs. 

Another debt that I see from my career and from the University in general is in inclusion issues. I mean that there are indeed gender inclusion policies or for neuro divergent people, but there is no effective accompaniment or psychosocial support provided by the institution. I feel that all careers should have at least one psychosocial team to closely support mental health or inclusion issues.

Post 8: Summer Holidays

 I love traveling and seeing new places. After many years as a scout, camping somewhere surrounded by nature is one of my favorite landscapes. It's a kind of spiritual retreat hahaha.

I haven't thought much about what I'm going to do this summer holidays, because the pandemic outlook is a bit limiting, but I do know that in summer holidays I want to travel a lot, hopefully backpacking. I have many places that I would like to go, among them, I would love to travel to Chiloé. I live in Valdivia, so it’s not that far away, but every time I go I fall in love with the Island again. I feel that you never stop knowing new corners, forests, caves, people from all over Chile who make the trip something unforgettable.

I have family in Chiloé, so they have told me about several beautiful places that I would like to go. Especially to the Moon Festival that takes place in Cucao celebrating the full moon in February.

But I also would like to know other places. As I’m from Valdivia, I don’t know much about the north, I have only been to San Pedro de Atacama, but I do not know the towns that are further north of Valparaíso. So I want to go to the North of Chile, especially Antofagasta, since my partner is from that city and we have plans to travel in the summer holidays. So far we don't have a definite plan, but he knows a lot of beautiful places, so we have a lot to discover.

Post 7: Avatar: The Last Airbender.

 Today I would like to write about my favorite series. It is an animated series, but they have really helped me a lot to distract myself in pandemic times and to regain faith in humanity haha.

The first of all is Avatar: The last airbender (ATLA). This is an animated series that I saw for the first time in my childhood. I remember that the idea of being able to dominate an element (earth, water, fire or air) was something that I dreamed of every time I saw this series.

ATLA is set in an "Asian" style world in which some people can master the elements, but only the "Avatar" can master the four elements, as it’s the bridge between the spiritual world and the physical world with the aim of maintaining harmony among the four nations of the world. The series focuses on the journey of Aang, a 12-year-old monk, the last airbender who awakens after being frozen in an iceberg for 100 years. Together with the help of Katara, Sokka and Toph decide to go on a journey so that Aang can master the three missing elements and end the war that the Fire Nation has started.

I think it’s a very complete series. There is a lot of action, but it also invites us to reflect on friendships, peace, violence and the redemption of people. In addition, the spiritual component is something that is very present in each of the episodes. In fact, my favorite chapter is one called "Chakras", where Aang goes to visit a monk who helps him unlock his Chakras so that he can enter the Avatar State again.

As if that wasn't enough, in 2012 The Legend of Korra (TLOK) was released, set 70 years after ATLA, where Korra is the next reincarnation of the Avatar. In my opinion, this series is more mature than the previous one. In the first place, the characters are 16-year-old adolescents, so their reflections are deeper, even in some chapters it is difficult to believe that it is a series for children due to the depth that some themes are given. I think it is very different from ATLA, because what I rescue the most from TLOK is that it has a very strong criticism of different government systems in each of its seasons. In the first one you see a social war in search of social rights; in the second season there is a civil war between the two water tribes; the third book investigates anarchism, its failures and its achievements; finally, in the fourth book totalitarianism is criticized with the introduction of Kuvira as dictator.

Both series are totally captivating and worth every second of their plot.

Post 6: Post Graduated Studies

 I have many plans for the future, and so different between them. One of my dreams has always been to study theatre, because it is something that fascinates me a lot. Even though it was one of my principal options when I had to decide to choose a career, I refused to take that path, because it is very frightening studying an artistic career, since arts are an area that has been so neglected in Chile and it doesn’t get the value it deserves. But I decided to study Sociology, because it is also something that fascinates me a lot.

About my studies related to the sociological area, I would like to do a master´s degree in gender matters, either in Chile or in another Latin American country like Mexico or Brazil. I would love for my studies to allow me to travel through Latin America and meet different women, LGBT people, and feminisms. It’s a dream and a goal that I hope to achieve, it would make me immensely happy.

Anyway, I think money is a pretty big limitation. It is very sad that the purchasing power makes a really big difference when it comes to education. At this moment I am with gratuity, so I’m lucky that I don’t get into debt to be able to study, but even so, I feel that the economic future of me and my family is very uncertain, so it's sad to think about the limitations when the desires to learn are big. Anyway, I hope I can achieve my goals, gradually.

Post 5: My Future Job

 Just this week I realized that I started out in adult life and, even though it was a pretty obvious revelation, it left me wondering about many things. Among those, the future. Thinking about an ideal job makes me feel so much anxiety and uncertainty.

 

Will I find a job? What if I don't like it? Am I going to be hired? Am I going to be good enough? I don’t know, let’s find out haha.

 

My expectations for an ideal job are very high, and that’s why I get a little afraid of not reaching that goal. To achieve it I feel that I have to study a lot, which I love, but it happens to me that I like too many topics and different things, so it's difficult for me to decide on something concrete. After completing my studies and becoming a sociologist, I would like to continue studying, either a master´s degree in any subject that I like or study another career, I think in theater. Something that I really love about my career is that it is very versatile so, it can blend in with artistics areas with ease.

The truth is I don't know where i'm going, but I do know that, after study a lot, it will be a dream give lessons in some institution and continue with the investigate line, but never losing the reality that, even though the researches helps to make visible different topics and problems, they aren't so strong for change a reality. I believe that I would feel like uniting this bridge and debt with the social sciences with people's daily reality.

Clearly, I would like to travel around the world, but mainly Latin America.

I hope that my work allows me to fulfill this dream. I have faith that I will be able to achieve my expectations. I know it won't be easy, but at least I think I have a clue about where I want to go or how I want to grow professionally.

Post 4: Career related topic

 To choose a college career at 18 years old was tough and distressing. I gave it a thousand turns in my head, I felt like I wasn't able to make a mistake in my decision, a decision that I -believed- was going to mark my future.  What I was sure of was that my interests were more aligned to the humanistic and social side, before the scientific side.

Once I was able to sort my ideas, I identified my top 3 college careers that I liked the most, which were: history, sociology and law. Finally, I go for a History Degree at the Universidad de Chile. I chose that career because there are many teachers in my family, so I felt like I have to follow this sort of “legacy”, besides that I love history. Nevertheless, my family suspected that I wasn’t going to feel fulfilled with it. And that’s how it went. In the beginning I struggled a lot with recognizing that I wanted to change into another career, but once I managed to talk with my mom and unburden myself, I felt so much comprehension and support.

 

So, I continue with my second option: Sociology. The principal reason for me to enter this career is because I love to learn new things, I like to know how social systems work, and understand why we are in an “x” situation. I love to learn, and I feel that this career gives me the necessary tools for me, to know how to do researches and to quench my thirst for knowledge, curiosities and ponder on the structural problems, how they behave and how these structural problems have individual consequences. In the beginning I felt my reasons were selfish, because they weren’t reasons like to “help others” or “be a contribution to this society” but now, that I’m in the middle of my career I think that in reality, sociology really has given me the tools to make smalls changes possible somewhere. For example, work with LGBT people, public politics, doing research, create ong´s or popular schools, etc.

 

I believe that studying sociology has been one of the most beautiful choices I have ever made. It has been a journey, full of doubts, confusion, and fears, but also full of learning. I feel grateful for having this opportunity. This doesn’t mean that everything’s perfect, because it isn’t, there are so many aspects that the Universidad de Chile has to improve, but at least I feel comfortable with my decision.