Growing up, I was always close to my older sister. We were only about 2 and a half years apart, so when I say she was literally my best friend, she was my best friend! We literally did everything together such as playing with dolls/doll houses, going to the pools together, and even sharing clothes because I literally loved to match with her constantly so my mom would buy us matching outfits. Growing up people always thought we were twins! Like any other little sister, I wanted to be just like my big sister. The social learning theory played a huge part within my sister & I's childhood. My sister always got rewarded when she would make the honor roll, or even just get good grades on tests. This really motivated me to get good grades because I knew when she got good grades, she would be rewarded so I wanted to get rewarded too! I would almost imitate her actions so I could receive the same treatment back, and it worked! Haha. I would observe her actions and then take what I observed to change my behaviors to get what she would get (rewards). It honestly was so important and a good thing because it changed my actions is a positive way. It made me a more concentrated worker and made me work 10 times harder than usual. Even now, to this day,  I feel like I really try my best on my school work because that is how it has been all along! 

Sports and Gender Socialization

COLLAPSE

Throughout middle and both high school, I have been involved in organized sports and socialization before, such as flag football and cheer. But particularly, flag football is the one experience that stood out to me the most. In 7th grade I participated in an outside school sports team, for flag football. It was such an amazing experience because it was my cousin & I who decided to join it, but before knowing the team was full of only boys. We were the only 2 girls on the team and on any other team we played against. At first, we wanted to drop out because we felt excluded, but as time passed we realized it was actually so fun being different! We socialized so much with the other teammates and it was fun beating them at things because we were "girls" and people thought flag football was "only for boys." Flag football gave us opportunities to be both more physically active and social with people around us. From that experience, it gave me an insight that being around "only boys" wasn't such a bad thing like the stereotypes make it seem like. It was really fun and an amazing experience to remember. The norm that stated flag football was only for males, was definitely proven wrong. Our values included commitment, work ethic, and most importantly respect of self and others, which is what my cousin and I received being the only females on the team and on any other team. I ended up getting building a love for the sport, which came from my effort and patience as well. I started off not knowing anything about the sport, but as time passed, it only gave me a life long lasting memory to keep forever. Sports and gender socialization definitely played a role here. This experience taught me the social expectations and/or behaviors associated with both girls and boys and how they can differ or be alike from one another.