Personally I chose to always be at least decent looking whenever I go out in public. When it comes to dressing myself, I am really just all over the place because I don’t only stick to one type of style. Sometimes I like to dress casual and wear jeans with a top and sometimes I feel like dressing up and put on a full face of make-up. A good example of showing that I have a very versatile style is through my footwear because I have a wide variety which includes things like pairs of Jordans, heels, vans, flats, etc. This is how I choose to dress myself and everyone has their own style and can choose to dress however they want.

A lot of what I believe in or value was taught to me by my family, especially my mom. My mom always told me to be somewhat presentable in public because it reflects on you, of course. I know that sometimes you just want to run to the store but are too lazy to get ready. The reason my mom tells me to always look presentable is because you never know who you are going to meet or what’s going to happen while you’re out. For example, my first job was working as a sales associate at Hollister and they way I got the job was by just shopping in the store on a random day. On that day, I was shopping with my mom and the manager walked up to me and offered the job because she liked the way I looked. Being presentable doesn’t mean always looking your best but as long as you look put together then you’re good. I mean, the day I got hired I wasn’t dressed up and I had little makeup on.

Like I said, I make the choices I make because that’s just how I was raised. These beliefs and values were distilled into me since I was a little girl. I’m very family oriented and people say I’m just like my mother but it’s definitely true. My mom is my hero and she basically taught me everything I know, there are sometimes that I catch myself saying the exact words that she would say. With that being said, I wouldn’t say that my values or beliefs have changed very much over the years. I still carry those that were taught to me when I was growing up. Over the years as I grew up, I guess you could say that some of my values and beliefs have evolved but not very much has changed. Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen when you grow up? When you’re little you learn everything from your family and surroundings but as you grow up, you become your own person and morph your values into your own.

There are some core beliefs and values that my family follows that show in the way we dress. I’m not too sure why but my family likes to live by sayings. For example, one saying that my family follows other than the ones I’ve already mentioned is “there’s a time to work and a time to play”. Although this saying is usually associated with behavior, it can also deal with the way we dress or present ourselves. This is because different ways of dressing or styles are appropriate for different occasions. Of course you wouldn’t dress like you’re going clubbing, to school right? Dressing like you’re going to the club would fall into the “play time” category whereas going to school would fall under the “work time” category and therefore this clashes. Same for if you were dressed casually like you’re going to school, to the club.

I grew up in Hawaii and I now go to school in Oregon at the University of Oregon and to be honest, they are completely different places. It is obvious that everyone will have their own beliefs and values based on their family and how they grew up. Because my peer community would be the students around me, it is safe to conclude that everyone believes or values different things just by looking at the variety of people that attend our school. I would honestly say that because here at the University of Oregon has his or her own style. It is really hard for me to infer a person’s values or beliefs based on how they are dressed because if they are anything like me, they could have a versatile style making it hard to determine their values or beliefs because they are always dressed differently. One thing that I could conclude about my peer communities values and beliefs would be that we all value education and success because we’re all here for a reason right? We all want to graduate, maybe go on to some type of higher education in hopes of landing a great paying careers that allows up to live the lives that we’ve always dreamed.

Although I try not to judge the way others dress around me, I am only human and it does happen sometimes but I make it a thing in my life to not judge anyone because I wouldn’t want anyone to judge me even though people probably do. There’s a very common saying that my mom never failed to tell me which was, “Treat others the way you want to be treated”. This is one of the many sayings that I live my life by. There have been a couple incidences where people around me have been judged and bullied and I saw how it hurt their self-esteem and later affected how they interact with people around them. I guess this could count as one of my life experiences that affected my values and beliefs as I grew up.

The first person I chose to write about is what I feel like is a laid back kid. He is sitting down on his computer in the EMU. He is wearing a black Hurley hat, a white billabong t-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of vans. At first he was alone, but about 5-10 minutes after he sat down at a table, a girl came and joined him. I feel that he is possibly very friendly and happy because he is constantly smiling. I also believe that he values education and being successful because him and his friend seemed to have been working together to complete an assignment. Based on his dress I would believe that he is around 19 or 20 years old, probably a freshman at U of O. He is obviously of white decent because of his skin color and a male. Because I try not to judge or make negative assumptions of people, I feel as if my assumptions are very superficial to his appearance. I didn’t make any stereotypical assumptions based on his dress, skin color, etc.

This second person is walking past the Lillis business complex wearing a really baggy type of what looks like a hemp poncho with loose fitting pants and what I call “Jesus sandals”. This maybe a stereotypical judgment, and I rarely do this, but I would believe that this person is a hippie. I say this because based on what she is wearing she gives off this sense of stress free and happiness. She had ear buds in and was just jamming to whatever she was listening to, she didn’t care that people were around or watching her. I feel as if she is the type of person that values life itself and just wants to be happy. She also had what seemed as little dreads in her hair and what looked like a nose piercing. I assumed that she was about 20, maybe 21 years of age and she was obviously of white decent because of her skin color. Again, I would say that my assumptions were superficial and didn’t make any real judgments on who she was just based on appearance.

This might be weird but I’ve noticed this person because he’s in my music class, he really caught my eye, and this is the perfect assignment to write about him. Like I said, he’s in my music class and every lecture he wears some type of suit. I thought this was very interesting and the first thought that popped into my head was that he’s “dressing for success”. This leads me to believe that he values his education and wants to be successful. I also noticed that he often asks questions during lecture. Because he dresses in some type of suit I would say that he’s from a well off family and is from white decent because of his skin color. Although I know that he’s probably around my age, between 19-21, because he wears a suit people would assume that he’s of an older age. I applaud him for taking initiative to become successful because success is something I also value and want in the future. I mean who doesn’t want to be successful right? Isn’t that why we are in college?