Running Head: AIRLINE INDUSTRY: BOEING 1
AIRLINE INDUSTRY: BOEING 2
Airline industry: Boeing
Name
Institution
Airline industry: Boeing
It is of no doubt that the airline industry is one of the major economic drivers in the world. This is because it provides transport services to virtually every part of the globe. The airline industry has played a significant role in the creation of a global economy. Economic analysts posit that the airline industry is a major economic force in terms of how it operates, connect the world, and the impact it has on other related industries such as tourism and aircraft manufacturers to mention but a few (Lawrence & Thornton, 2017). In fact, experts in every economic sector agree that the airline industry has played a significant in turning the world into a global village due to its ability to ferry masses from one corner of the world to several others. The economic importance of the airline industry has been felt by everyone across the world and this cannot be wished away so easily. However, it must be appreciated that the airline industry comes with numerous challenges. For example, the world has witnessed massive losses of lives caused by plane crashes caused by simulators or as a result of terror activities. For the past few months, one of the leading aircraft manufactures has hit headlines for the wrong reasons. This paper provides a comprehensive view of the Boeing Company since its incorporation and the challenges it has gone through to date.
The history of Boeing
Boeing Company is an American aerospace company and the world’s largest in manufacturing commercial jet transports. It is equally the leading manufacturer of space vehicles and military aircraft among others. Its history dates back to 1916 when William Boeing and Conrad Westervelt manufactured a single engine, two-seat plane under B and W and later renamed it Boeing Company in 1917. In the 1920s and 30s, the company successfully sold military aircraft to the United States military (Lawrence & Thornton, 2017). The company assumed its current name in 1961 in a bid to reflect its ambitious expansion in aircraft manufacturing. Today, Boeing is considered the leading manufacturer of military aircraft, commercial airplanes, and missiles. The company has sold several units of Boeing 737 Max 8 to many countries across the world. Boeing 737 is a narrow body plane built by the company’s Renton Plant. It has gone through a series of improvement to enable the company challenges its closest rival; Airbus in term of fuel efficiency and service delivery. The continuous improvement led to the creation of Boeing 737 Max 8 that has since caused two accidents killing all passengers in less than a year. It must be remembered that Boeing 737 Max 8 was launched in December 2015 and the first delive.
1. Running Head: AIRLINE INDUSTRY: BOEING
1
AIRLINE INDUSTRY: BOEING
2
Airline industry: Boeing
Name
Institution
Airline industry: Boeing
It is of no doubt that the airline industry is one of the major
economic drivers in the world. This is because it provides
transport services to virtually every part of the globe. The
airline industry has played a significant role in the creation of a
global economy. Economic analysts posit that the airline
industry is a major economic force in terms of how it operates,
connect the world, and the impact it has on other related
industries such as tourism and aircraft manufacturers to mention
but a few (Lawrence & Thornton, 2017). In fact, experts in
every economic sector agree that the airline industry has played
a significant in turning the world into a global village due to its
ability to ferry masses from one corner of the world to several
others. The economic importance of the airline industry has
been felt by everyone across the world and this cannot be
wished away so easily. However, it must be appreciated that the
airline industry comes with numerous challenges. For example,
the world has witnessed massive losses of lives caused by plane
crashes caused by simulators or as a result of terror activities.
For the past few months, one of the leading aircraft
manufactures has hit headlines for the wrong reasons. This
paper provides a comprehensive view of the Boeing Company
since its incorporation and the challenges it has gone through to
date.
2. The history of Boeing
Boeing Company is an American aerospace company and the
world’s largest in manufacturing commercial jet transports. It is
equally the leading manufacturer of space vehicles and military
aircraft among others. Its history dates back to 1916 when
William Boeing and Conrad Westervelt manufactured a single
engine, two-seat plane under B and W and later renamed it
Boeing Company in 1917. In the 1920s and 30s, the company
successfully sold military aircraft to the United States military
(Lawrence & Thornton, 2017). The company assumed its current
name in 1961 in a bid to reflect its ambitious expansion in
aircraft manufacturing. Today, Boeing is considered the leading
manufacturer of military aircraft, commercial airplanes, and
missiles. The company has sold several units of Boeing 737
Max 8 to many countries across the world. Boeing 737 is a
narrow body plane built by the company’s Renton Plant. It has
gone through a series of improvement to enable the company
challenges its closest rival; Airbus in term of fuel efficiency
and service delivery. The continuous improvement led to the
creation of Boeing 737 Max 8 that has since caused two
accidents killing all passengers in less than a year. It must be
remembered that Boeing 737 Max 8 was launched in December
2015 and the first delivery was made on 16th of May 2017 to
Malindo Air. Since then, many other airline companies have
obtained several units from the company but the two fatal
accidents involving Indonesian Airline and Ethiopian airline
caused the airline users and regulators to ground all Boeing 737
Max 8 citing safety concerns.
Boeing Flight crashes from 1990 to present
There have been several Boeing fight crashes from 1990 to the
present. About thirty-five cases have been documented. On
October 2nd, 1990, Boeing 737 crashed hitting to other planes
while attempting to land at Guangzhou Baiyun airport. The
plane had been hijacked by terrorists and its efforts to land
3. proved futile killing a total of 128 people including seven crew
members, seventy-five passengers, and forty-six other
passengers from Flight 2812. In 1992, Boeing 737-200
belonging to United Airlines carrying twenty passengers and
five crew members crashed near Colorado Springs killing
everyone. The crash was caused by a rudder malfunction (Musi,
2016). On the 6th of June 1992, Boeing 737-204 belonging to
Copa Airlines crashed twenty-nine minutes after take-off from
Tocumen International Airport killing all the forty passengers
and seven crew members. On the 9th of August 1995, a 737-200
belonging to Aviateca crashed while approaching El Salvador
International Airport killing all the sixty-five occupants. On
13th of November the same year, a 737-2F9 belonging to
Nigeria Airways crashed after a runway overrun. Eleven out of
a hundred and twenty-four passengers were killed. All the crew
members survived. On 3rd December 1995, a 737-200 belonging
to Cameroon Airlines after the crew lost its control while
approaching Douala International Airport in Cameroon. A total
of seventy-one occupants lost their lives including crew
members. Only five people survived the crash. On the 29th of
February 1996, a 737-200 belonging to Faucett crashed while
approaching Rodríguez Ballón International Airport in Arequipa
killing all a hundred and seventeen passengers and six crew
members on board. On the 19th of April 2000, a 737-200
belonging to Air Philippines flying from Ninoy Aquino
International Airport-Manila crashed while approaching
Francisco Bangoy International Airport-Philippines killing all a
hundred and twenty-four passengers and seven crew members.
On July 8th, 2003, a 737-200C belonging to Sudan Airways
stalled and crashed in Port Sudan killing all a hundred and
seventeen occupants including eleven crew members (Musi,
2016). On May 18th, 2018, Boeing 737-201 belonging to Global
Air operated shortly after takeoff from José Martí International
Airport killing a hundred and twelve occupants. On October
29th the same year, Boeing 737 Max 8 belonging to Lion Air
crashed thirteen minutes after taking off from Pangkal Pinang in
4. Indonesia killing all a hundred and eighty-one passengers, six
crew members and two pilots (Broderick, Carey & Goldstein,
2019). The latest Boeing 737 crash occurred on March 10th,
2019 killing all a hundred and fifty-seven occupants. Most of
these crashes occurred as a result of technical challenges
originating from the aircraft and not the pilots.
Negligence in not obtaining FAA approval for new software
plane changes
The history of Boeing 737 Max 8 dates back to 2015 when it
was first rolled out in the market. Since then, many airline
companies have acquired several units from Boeing with Lion
Air dominating. The sad part is that Boeing 737 Max 8 is still
new in the aviation industry but has already caused more three
hundred and forty deaths in less than five months. These deaths
occurred when Lion Air crashed in the sea thirteen minutes after
taking off. The same case occurred when Ethiopian Airline
crashed sixteen minutes after taking off from Ethiopia
International Airport (Broderick et al., 2019). The two crashes
were caused by faulty readings from a key sensor and the pilots
followed recommended Boeing procedures when the planes
began nose-diving. The manufacturer has been blamed for its
negligence in obtaining FAA approval regarding its new
software plane changes. This is because the FAA could not have
approved and the flawed system could not have been allowed to
fly. However, it appears that the company negligently obtained
approval from the FAA. The managers at Boeing prodded the
certification procedures to be speeded up and the time was too
short for FAA’s technical staff to complete the review regarding
the new software. Most of the review regarding the new
software was delegated back to Boeing and not FAA itself
(Broderick et al., 2019). Additionally, the approval procedure
was flawed probably because of the global position that the
company holds in manufacturing commercial and military
aircraft. In other words, the United States was not ready to lose
the global market to its key competitors and this could be one of
5. the reasons why the certification procedure regarding the new
software was flawed.
Lack of training for all pilots on new software
Following the two deadly crashes that occurred in less than five
months apart and with similar characteristics, Boeing was
blamed for its failure to train pilots on how the new software
works. Furthermore, the Indonesian investigators concluded that
the new system that was designed to deal with accident
scenarios was not described in the flight operation manual. In
addition to this, the United States Pilots Union stated that it was
not aware of the new anti-stall system. Most pilots were not
aware of the new software and neither were they aware that the
computer on Boeing 737 Max 8 could force the aircraft to
descend sharply for about ten seconds and that this could make
it difficult for them to control the plane (Broderick & Dubois,
2019). Boeing did not conduct training of pilots on how to
respond to automatic reactions and how much time they needed
to respond. When subtle changes are made, new models in
planes come with significant changes on their hardware and
software; this is the case with Boeing 737 Max 8.
Unfortunately, FAA and Boeing did not mandate new training of
pilots on the new software to help them cope with challenges
such as nose-diving in the event that the sensor suggests that
the aircraft is about to stall. If the system operates differently
than the pilot is used to, it becomes difficult for a pilot to climb
out with an aircraft full of passengers while figuring out how
the new system works.
Pending lawsuits or obstacle’s may Boeing face, if any?
Following two plane crashes that occurred barely five months
apart where both crashes had had similar characteristics, several
laws suits have been filed against Boeing and this could have a
damaging effect on the company. For example, after the Lion
Air plane crash, several laws suits were filed by family
members and relatives of the deceased alleging that the crash
6. was caused by a faulty anti-stall system as well as the defective
flight manual that did not adequately explain to the pilots about
the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System
(Broderick & Dubois, 2019). The system caused the aircraft to
nose-dive sharply and suddenly thus making it extremely
difficult for the pilot to control the aircraft. One of the lawsuits
is one filed on behalf of Dayinta Dyah Anggana whose 54-year
old mother died in the plane crash. The claim seeking
unspecified damage was filed in Cook County, Chicago where
Boeing is headquartered. Apart from this claim, legal experts
have warned that the company faces prospects of substantial
payouts to families whose relatives lost their lives in the
crashes that occurred in less than five months (Broderick &
Dubois, 2019). According to legal experts, the second crash
could have more damaging effects on the company’s reputation
and financial resources because the earlier crash put the
company on notice and nothing happened to fix the problem.
Another obstacle faced by the aircraft maker is the possibility
that airlines that were forced to ground their 737 Max 8 fleets
could sue for the money they lost.
What changes should be considered for improvement
There are several changes that Boeing should consider for
improvement. For example, the company may maintain the
simulator but carry out adequate training of pilots so that they
are fully equipped with skills needed to respond to sudden
situations without panicking. Additionally, the company needs
to make a complete disclosure of Maneuvering Characteristics
Augmenting System so that each pilot is fully aware of how the
system works (Broderick & Dubois, 2019). This is based on the
fact that the pilot of Lion Air that crashed had not heard about
the system and neither had other pilots from across the globe
heard of it. For this reason, the maneuvering system should be
adequately mentioned in the flight manuals.
In summary, Boeing is considered the largest manufacturer of
7. commercial aircraft. However, the company has severally hit
headlines for all the wrong reasons. Boeing has made several
accidents in the past years but the two most recent accidents are
as a result of Maneuvering Characteristics Augmenting System
that automatically itself when the aircraft faces the risk of
stalling to enable the nose to dive slowly and still enable the
aircraft to keep its balances. However, the systems sometimes
send wrong readings and making the plane to suddenly nose-
dive beyond the control of the pilot.
Reference
Broderick, S., & Dubois, T. (2019). MAX chaos: two 737-8
accidents in five months raise fears; regulatory coordination
vaporizes; accident similarities grow. Aviation Week & Space
Technology.
Broderick, S., Carey, B., & Goldstein, B. (2019). MAX saga
spotlights flight-deck human factors: two Boeing 737-8
accidents center on pilot reactions; crews lacked critical
information; abnormal scenario training urged. Aviation Week
& Space Technology.
Lawrence, P. K., & Thornton, D. W. (2017). Deep stall: the
turbulent story of Boeing commercial airplanes. Routledge.
Musi, S. (2016). Vanguard: A Pre-History of The Boeing
Company. In 54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (p. 1399).
Running Head: RACE AND GENDER
RACE AND GENDER 2
8. Race and Gender
Ikwuagwu
Race and Gender
Diversity is among the most discussed topics globally today.
What is diversity? In simple terms, diversity can be defined as
differences among individuals or rather groups of people based
or various factors. Differences include gender, race, class,
culture, religion, sexuality, citizenship, and many more. Social
construction on the other hand is a term used to describe how
different identity categories such as gender, race and class are
formed within a given society and how they are maintained
through social institutions. People have different experiences on
their different diversities, which will be discussed by the end of
this paper. Besides, this paper will discuss an autobiographical
sketch of my personal experience, particularly in gender and
race issues in life.
Every human being has to undergo social, physical as well as
emotional changes in his or her life. As human being grow up,
they learn more about themselves understanding how to accept
how they look, their race, gender, and many more aspects.
Identity is one of the compound aspects of human beings
9. personality growth, and it is divided into different dimensions,
which include gender and race. Race is a situation where one
believes that a certain culture is better than the other.
Racism
Racism is among the world’s greatest problem affecting human
beings in the 20th century. Racism is when one believes that
one person is better than the other or rather a certain race is
better compared to the other (Loewen, 2018). Racism is
practiced in various situations or places in life, including in
schools, workplaces, or even in a country at large. Racism
provides an example of how social construction affects a
society, further, it provides a clear representation of a society
characterized by race differences. Race differences can be
explained as the prejudices that people in a society have
towards those perceived to belong to a different race. Race
differences are a fact and affect everybody in every society
(Cindy Tsutsumi, 2003). This is because, our attitudes towards
others and ourselves depend on the race that we identify or
identified with. This matters a lot, since race determines many
fundamental aspects of life, like education, incomes, beliefs,
immigration status and health.
A case of racism happened recently when a student in school
mentioned that different races should report back to their
countries, for instance, the African American should go back to
Africa, the Chinese back to China and the Indians back to their
country India. That raised a lot of questions, are human beings
that different? Generally, people who practice racism in most
cases dislike the other races culture, skin color, origin, or
basically any other aspect that defines the nature of a person.
Racism has continued to affect immigrants, especially in the
United States of America. A good example is the Muslim,
people from Hispanic countries, Jewish people and African
American students who travel to the U.S. for further education.
The immigrants have a hard time being accepted in American
society (Fredrickson, 2015). There is a notion that the Muslim
culture basically promotes terrorism or rather Islam phobia,
10. which has made it hard for them to be accepted. The Muslim
culture is, in return, feared, hated, or even in other cases,
discriminated as it is evident in the recent Muslim ban by
President Donald Trump. Hispanic are seen as people that came
to dominate, multiply and take over the country. White folks
fear that Jews are coming to replace them, as seen in the
Charlottesville Virginia white supremacy match in 2017. While
African Americans on the other hand, are seen as slaves by the
white people as a result of the slavery that historically happened
in the past and are still being promoted in the 20th century
through racism. The white students see the African American
students as slaves and inferior, that have led to them being
discriminated since they the whites are seen as better off than
the African American students. Secondly, African American
immigrants are seen by the white folks as people that came to
take the jobs that were meant for them, thereby not giving them
equal opportunity to thrive when they complete their studies. As
an African American from a working-class background, I am
guilty of having done little to examine my ancestry and how
these affect my life or to examine the impact that race have on
others. For most of my life, I gave little more than cursory
thought to the culture and heritage of my first-generation
African parents, other than to write the occasional report on
slave trade and African migration in grade school. I regret never
having discussed with my parents what their lives were like
growing up.
My dad migrated from Africa when he was very young. He
worked twice harder than his white counterparts to make ends
meet, because of the racial prejudice that is existing in our
society, while my mom was a fulltime housewife. We weren’t
poor, but we weren’t wealthy either, my dad worked hard to
provide for the family. We were raised to associate with
different races or cultures. Men worked and the women stayed
at home to take care of the children. It was a different time back
then from what we have now in the 21st century. When I was
growing up it wasn’t easy, I experienced racism myself because
11. of my skin color. I had to ride the bus to school with children
who were from different races, there was tension on the bus and
whispering of the slur term nigga all around, but this did not
deter me from working hard to become who I want to be.
Another example is the migration based racist statement also
made by current U.S. president, as reported in New York Times.
He stated that the continent of Africa is a shit holes, that he
would prefer migrants from European and Scandinavian
countries to migrate to the U.S.
Although, several Americans are not comfortable
acknowledging that racism still exist in our country. These
adversities have had a negative and positive influence in our
society. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to believe as our
forefathers wrote in the Constitution “that all men are created
equal”. It is high time people learned that in the current era, we
are no longer living under racism intuition, rather a diverse
society. People should work on helping each other grow rather
than destroying each other based on the idea that they are better
than a certain group. Racism should be discouraged at all
means, and everyone should be given an equal chance or even
equal opportunities regardless of their race. Racism affects the
migrant majorly, for the fact that they are left feeling out of
place and unaccepted in society. Even if we can convince
ourselves that these issues have nothing to do with us
personally, we aren’t prejudiced, or we’ve worked hard to get
where we are, they do affect us. Institutionalized racism are a
fact of everyday life in America and affect everyone in our
society. Often our degree of consciousness and always our
perspective depends upon with which race we identify or are
identified along with our personal experiences with racism. But,
even if we choose not to notice, we cannot escape from the fact
that racial identities and more importantly, the embedded and
systemic societal privileges or disadvantages that come from
these socially-constructed roles affect how we define ourselves,
how others relate to us, and what opportunities we are offered
or denied in almost every aspect of our lives (Hess, Beth B. and
12. Elizabeth W. Markson, Peter Stein, 2001).
Gender
Gender can be defined as the physical appearance,
which can either be female or male. Gender discrimination is
another differentiating factor that affects people globally.
Gender discrimination can be described as discriminating a
certain person based on their sex or gender, and most of the
people who are commonly discriminated are the women or girls.
The New York Times magazine has discussed different cases of
women being discriminated and among the articles is that of
Maya Salam (2019), where she discussed women fighting for
equal pay in sports. Salam has stated a few examples of cases
where women faced inequality in terms of pay in sports. A good
example is that of the U.S.A. hockey in the year 2017, where
the women's national hockey team declared publicly that they
would boycott the world's championship since they wanted an
increase in their wages. Immediately, the committee responded
by giving the female players $2,000 training stipend monthly as
well as signing bonuses for medal winnings. That is among the
few cases which have been paraded on the ground that women
are being discriminated or rather, there are gender
discrimination cases. Similarly, there have been multiple cases
of men being discriminated due to their gender. A good
example is in the teaching industry, where most administrations
prefer women over men. That has continued to be practiced
considering that in schools, a large percentage of teachers are
women.
Gender discrimination or even racism has continued to be
among the aspects that define identity which has created
obstacles for different people at different times. The worst of
all is that these two factors are used to determine opportunities
which should be presented to individuals and has led to people
missing out on opportunities. Both gender discrimination and
racism should be discouraged, and it all starts with everyone,
failure to do that, the trend will be passed on to generations
after generations, which will be hard to tame by then.
13. References
Cindy Tsutsumi, (2003). CLASS AND RACE IN AMERICA:
Retrieved from
https://www.cindytsutsumi.com/wp-
content/downloads/words/Anth_ClassRace.pdf
Maya Salam, March 11, 2019, the long fight for pay equality in
sports. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/sports/us-womens-soccer-
pay.html
Loewen, J. W. (2018). Sundown towns: A hidden dimension of
American racism. The New
Press.
Fredrickson, G. M. (2015). Racism: A short history (Vol. 18).
Princeton University Press.
Hess, Beth B. and Elizabeth W. Markson, Peter Stein,
2001.Racial and Ethnic Minorities:
An Overview. IN Race, Class, and Gender in the United
States: An Integrated Study.
Fifth Edition. Paula S. Rothenberg, ed. New York: Worth
Publishers. 324-35.
1
Running head: THE STORY OF KORIE
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
14. [Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type the document title]
[Type the date]
[Type text]
[Type text]
[Type text]
6
5
THE STORY OF KORIE
The Story of Korie – An Autobiography
Korie
The Story of Korie
15. There once was a boy who was born into a family that was
somewhere between low and middle class. He was the first born
of the family and the family soon grew to have two more
brothers and a sister, but not all of the same parents. Some of
my earliest memories are of when my mom and dad when they
were arguing. I remember being a seven-year-old boy and being
torn from my dad’s car by my mother and her best friend during
my little brother’s birthday party. The dilemma was all because
of a custody disagreement. My family was getting separated.
“While we might not remember more total details about a bad
event we experience the details you remember about a negative
event are more likely to be accurate” (Thompson, 2007). While
that was a defining moment that would have a ripple effect on
my childhood psyche and life growing up, there were many
other events that shaped me into who I am today. My name is
Korie Gaumer and this is my story.
Living and School
Due to our family separation, my mother was raising my
brother, Kyle, and I as a single mother. She worked many odd
jobs to cover the bills and we moved often. We never moved
far but that was so that we could remain in the same school
district during our critical developmental years. My mother was
a very proud woman and we never applied for any government
aid such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC) or food stamps.
“With 42.2 million people participating in the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), one might think
Americans would have a more welcoming stance towards their
usage” (Cutter, 2018). There was always a negative stigma in
our area growing up about the people who utilize those sorts of
programs. They were seen as extremely poor people who did
not even use them for the right purposes. However, our family
from time to time has purchased food stamps off of people when
we were really hurting. It was a cheaper and better option
socially for us as a family to buy our groceries in this manner.
In school, my brother and I noticed very different cultures. The
16. schools that my brother and I attended during our primary and
middle school years were very close to a county line. Due to
the constant moving to different addresses, I had to transfer
school districts during my changeover from middle school to
high school. This means that I had to say goodbye to all of my
friends and start fresh with a new batch of miscreants. There
was a very well-known rumor that went around my town that the
good kids went to the district I was from and the bad kids went
to the district I was going. I was already going into making
friends with the forethought that these kids were all going to be
bad people. The population at my new school was very diverse
and had many more minorities as compared to my previous
school. Many of the kids that attended this school lived in the
poorer parts of town and made me realize that my city was more
segregated than I previously thought. The town was not always
segregated though.
Easton used to be a vibrant, culturally and racially diverse town
in the 1800’s to the mid-1940’s consisting mostly of Lebanese,
Jewish, and African American citizens. Easton fell victim to
the Housing Act of 1949 that gave local funding and power to
eradicate ghettos and slums. In turn these cleared areas of land
were sold to private developers that were encouraged to rebuild.
“Especially in the early years, cities practiced “bulldozer”
renewal, eradicating whole neighborhoods. Programs sometimes
eliminated not “slums,” but “low-rent” neighborhoods” (Smith,
2010). “Local redevelopment organizations did not always
comply with federal requirements to replace demolished
housing with additional housing units, exacerbating existing
housing shortages for lower-income families” (Smith, 2010).
Marriage and Family
I grew up without seeing much success in marriage or
relationships. My family was much more likely to sign a
contract for a joint bank account with their significant other
than they were to get formally bonded forever with marriage.
My mother did get married once when I was around ten years
17. old but that did not last more than about two years. Technically
speaking, they are still married by law although they have been
separated for almost two decades now. This complicated my
meaning of relationships growing up as I began to think that
relationships were not something that were built to last.
I did find myself thinking about what kind of family I would
like to have going into adulthood. I knew that I would want to
be married to a woman and that she was more than likely going
to enjoy all the things that I liked. My life would be just like
all the other nuclear families that I had seen on the television
growing up. I would work my rewarding job while my wife
stayed at home with our large number of kids and our one
Golden Retriever. When I got home, I would be greeted and
adored by my loving family and we would all sit around the
table for dinner.
As I grew older, I knew that this was not only something that I
did not want, but something that is unrealistic for today’s
society. I am now married to the love of my life, Amanda, who
made me realize that relationships can last. We have a beautiful
boy, Lucas, who really lights up my world and makes me want
to give him all the things I didn’t having in my youth. I’m
proud to say Amanda works a very difficult job in insurance and
makes more money than I bring home annually, although this
does hurt my pride as a man. “From infancy on, we are
socialized by family, educators, religious leaders, peer groups,
and the wider community, who teach us what is expected from
us in terms of appearance and behavior based on whether they
code us as a boy or a girl. Media and popular culture play
important roles in teaching us gender too” (Crossman, 2019).
Amanda and I are working on having more children but it has
been difficult due to medical issues and other life stressors that
cause hypertension. In fact, there was only one thing I kept sort
of the same from my childhood thoughts on marriage and
family. We have two small Pomeranians, Roxie and Gizmo who
love to bark and jump all over us when we come in the door
after a long day of working jobs we tolerate.
18. Conclusion
Although my life is not perfect, I still would not change
anything about that life. If I can offer any advice for people in
my similar situation it would be to forgive people even if you
feel they do not deserve it or want that forgiveness. I did not
have much of a relationship with my father growing up and it
hurt for many years. I did get to see him but only once or twice
a month if that was feasible. I did not know why he did not
want to see me more often or why he could not reach out more
often at least. I did not have a phone. I was always out riding
my bike. I was always making excuses. It was not until I
decided to forgive myself for his absence and decide for myself
that I was worth love that I truly started to develop as an adult.
Pain does not leave overnight from emotional scars, but pain
does get better. I have many events planned in the future for
myself and my family and that will keep me young at least for
the next few years. Thank you for listening to my
story.References
Crossman, A. (2019, May 25). ThoughtCo. Retrieved from The
Sociology of Gender: https://www.thoughtco.com/sociology-of-
gender-3026282
Cutter, E. (2018, September 28). Food Stamps program creates
stigma amongst students. Retrieved from The Pacific Index:
https://www.pacindex.com/opinion/2018/09/28/food-stamps-
program-creates-stigma-amongst-students/
Smith, A. (2010). The Language of “Blight” and Easton’s
“Lebanese Town”: Understanding a Neighborhood’s Loss to
Urban Renewal. PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
AND BIOGRAPHY, 128.
Thompson, A. (2007, September 5). Bad Memories Stick Better
Than Good. Retrieved from LiveScience:
https://www.livescience.com/1827-bad-memories-stick-