For the last blog entry we were asked to pick any concept that we have learned over the semester and discuss how the concept might apply to our personal, academic, or professional life. This might sound a lot like a previous post, but the concept that I chose was that of kinship. In class we talked about how kin could be defined in many different ways. We each made kinship diagrams to illustrate whom we thought of as “kin” to us. I would define kinship as not only immediate family (blood relatives), but also distant family, friends, classmates that you have befriended, people familiar to you in your community, and maybe even co-workers (I know that the people I worked with at my last job seemed like another family to me).
What fascinated me about the whole “kinship” concept was that it could be considered a web. The web would ultimately make up who you believed to be your connections. If this web of connections included all of the different groups of people I listed above, my web would cover personal connections, academic connections, and professional connections.
With the major I currently have, Geography, I hope to study abroad before I get my degree and to continue traveling after graduation. Kinship and its web of connections could play a significant roll in my travels. Meeting so many new people in such different places will not only grow the web of connections but also allow me to soak in multiple “cultures” and possibly view life in ways I had not ever thought of. These people in my web can teach me things I would not otherwise learn. They could provide good recommendations for possible careers, they could become close friends (even if they are on the other side of the world).
I asked a friend of mine who she would consider to be in her kinship diagram...or who she would consider to be in her web of connections. Her answer was all of her Facebook friends. While she does have a large amount of friends online, there are plenty that she has never met in real life. Half these people on her friends list she doesn't even talk to. With that perspective I would not rely on an internet based connection to form my web of connections. I would rather have people on mine who I have met and talked to in real life, the people that would be the first to influence decisions I make or who I believe would support me in what I was doing.
I believe that with immediate family, distant family, friends, community, and work-based relationships would make for a large group of people to help weave my web of connections. Because I have personally met the people on my web I think that they would influence my personal life. They would be there to talk to, there to share stories back and forth with. These people are whom I choose to associate with, so if I am surrounding myself by them at some point they will inevitably have an effect (be it good or bad) on my personal life.
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