Sociobiography

Samantha Jensen

Growing up, I had always wondered why my mom drove my siblings and I twenty
minutes to our elementary school. Was there not one closer to our house? I grew up in
Kearns and could not comprehend why I didn’t go to school with my next door neighbor
and best friend Naomi, who looked nothing like me but rather like the other kids in my
neighborhood. Years later, I asked the question and found out the elementary school
closest to our house had a very low rating (no parental involvement, poor funding,
consistently low grades). We had used my grandmother’s address to go to a nicer,
modernized school. I realize now the privilege I was given that many other students
probably were not, including Naomi.
Looking back, I wonder if I was allowed by the administration to go to this school
because of my ethnicity rather than others or maybe even my family’s social class.
We moved out of our Kearns house when I was seven years old and into a home in
South Jordan where I attended a brand new elementary school. The difference between
the two was astonishing; it was the first time I had seen an entire room dedicated to a
computer lab with all modernized technology. I learned that this school was public, but
funded through community funds and families that could afford to donate extra money.
The community’s socioeconomic status was far above that of Kearns, and the level of
teaching and access to resources confirmed this social inequality.
I did not know it at the time but my family had grown up very poor, my parents did
a wonderful job at hiding this from us. Our intragenerational mobility moved slightly
vertical to the time we moved. However, we were among the lower class and while my
friends at school bragged about their new ipads and tropical vacations, I was ecstatic
about my new bike and soccer ball. The fact that I got gifts, I got to go to a nicer school,
played the sport I loved, and I wasn’t personally affected by my family’s financial status,
really accentuates my privilege (and I am very thankful for my parents).
During the duration of my life, I have truly been fortunate. I have faced a lot of
challenges and overcome plenty of hardships but I do acknowledge that these may
have not been to the extent of what others face, especially minority groups. This
sociology class has taught me the magnitude of how others are discriminated against
(both individually and institutionally), harassed, and the level of suffrage. It has put
my own challenges into perspective and forced me to address what I have not had to
face; I further appreciate my own life, experiences, and how I have grown up.