Both of my parents have instilled the importance of being kind, honest and hard working people on to me and my brother, and they have always told us that as long as we have tried to do our best in everything we set our minds to then we would never disappoint them. My mum especially was around for my brother and me when we were at junior school, and always got involved with school activities. I think that the values and traditions that my parents have raised me on are embedded deep within me, as I have strong thoughts and ideals on how I want to raise my own family based on my own experiences of family life as a child. If my husband and I can maintain but half the values and traditions our own parents have shown us we feel that we wont go far wrong!
Probably the most influencing factor on my self-configuration is my gender. The fact that I am female has a big factor on how I dress, I tend to dress in smart casual clothes and feel the most comfortable in jeans or black casual trousers and a nice fashionable top, and I am often told by my husband that I am a “typical female” because I love shopping for clothes and I really love to buy a new pair of shoes or 2! I always like my hair to look nice and go regularly to the hairdressers every 6 to 8 weeks to get it trimmed, and I have it coloured every 4 months or so. Being female also has a big influence on how I feel about my body shape, I feel that there is a lot of pressure on females to look thin and although I do not worry about what other people think about the shape of my body I have been battling with my weight on and off for the last 7 years, and I feel I would be happier within myself if I lost some weight.
Another very important influencing factor of my self-formation is my education. I strongly believe that education and parenting skills go hand in hand and work with each other, which is why I have listed them as my top two major influencing factors of my self-formation. I think that I have always been very fortunate in the fact that I have had excellent teachers through out most of my education, and I have had never ending support from my mum and dad. It can be said that I didn’t attend the best school in the area that I lived in! I opted to attend Emerson Park School in Hornchurch, and my parents supported me in this decision. At school I was encouraged to join in with lots of activities, I was in the school choir and the dancing group and I was a regular in the school plays and concerts. I achieved average results through out my education, and achieved 10 GCSE’s and 3 A-Levels. Obviously with out my education I would not have the knowledge and opinions that I have today, my education has also enabled me to make choices as to what I do as a career.
A big influencing factor in my self-formation is my religion, I have been raised in the Protestant faith, attending Sunday school when I was younger, which culminated with my decision to be confirmed at the age of 13, it is because of this that I intend to bring up my own children in the same faith. It was really important to me that when I got married last October, that the ceremony was not only held in a church, but was held at the church that I had in effect grown up in. This was important to me because I had gone to the church since I was young, and vicar of the church knew my family and me personally. I have been involved in the guide movement since I was 7 years old, and being a Brownie, Guide and then a leader in this organisation I am often doing lots of church charity fund raising events, as our unit is attached to the church, they support us and in turn we support them.
Obviously there are many other factors and influences that have determined my self-formation, but the ones I have talked about in this essay are the ones that I feel have the most influence on making me, me. In conclusion I believe that it is nurture and not nature that makes us all who we are, I think that we are all born the same, but it is our social interaction with our parents and them with us and our education that sets us on our way to determining the sort of self we turn out to be in adult life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Locke, J., Lecture notes taken on 22/09/03, page 1
