4. December 2009 by student.

My mom always said that when it came time to receive my teeth I must have gotten into the wrong line. I was born with every baby tooth that any kid would need, but when it came to adult teeth I was missing a few. Along with my lack of teeth I had a huge gap in the front of my mouth and an overbite. The summer before middle school image started becoming a factor, the gap that I could have cared less about before was now becoming an embarrassment that hindered me from participating in class discussions and made class picture day my least favorite day of the year. Body Image does not just mean a nice pair of breast and a small waist size, for me body image became an issue before I even started worrying about my breast size or calorie intake. A fifth grader should not have to think of anything more than who he/she is going to hang out with this weekend or at most the biggest worry on a 5th graders mind should be the dreaded vocabulary test coming up in class. However because of societies blown up  illusion of body Image that is plastered on magazine covers and streamed across television screens, body image is becoming an issue that is starting to effect not just adults and teenagers, but even younger children. upon getting braces in 6th grade the problem of my gap and overbite were solved. Since Body image is such a big deal, our society has created an awesome thing called cosmetics. With the help of a fake temporary tooth that attached to my braces my missing tooth problem was also no longer an issue. When my braces were removed my fake tooth was attached to my retainer. Although I was happy with this solution I could not wear a retainer for the rest of my life, so the process of receiving an implant was started. Sitting here today I am mid way through receiving my implant and I am again left toothless for a short period of time. This dejavu has given me a recent reminder of how emphasized body image is in our society.

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4. December 2009 by student.

You walk into a building and you have to go to the 5^th floor. The “up” button has been pushed and there is another person waiting for the elevator. The elevator door opens and what happens? I’ll tell you what happens; each of you will walk to a different corner of the elevator. Have you ever noticed that? Well if you take the time to, it’s quite noticeable. Everyone stands as far apart from one another like if everyone had a contagious or deadly disease, but why?

There are many reasons as to why strangers do this on an elevator. According to the sociological thinking, the main reason why people do this is because they feel uncomfortable and don’t want to be viewed as impolite or “strange”. There might be the polite smile entering the elevator, but after that everyone will go to a corner and there could be that dreaded awkward silence for the entire ride up or down. Another belief is that it could be considered a folkway, or an unspoken rule. Everyone just comprehends that; stand at a respectable distance from one another and all face the same way looking at the doors. But what if that doesn’t happen? Well, I guess it would just be a very awkward ride with someone staring you down while you’re in a small proximity with nowhere to go. Lastly, if you’re trapped in a room such as an elevator and the person next to you smells, you’re going to stand as far away from them as you can. Don’t lie, you would slowly start drifting towards the opposite corner to get what’s left of the fresh air until you can bolt out of the elevator and finally breathe again.

So next time you’re in an elevator with a stranger, make it interesting. Maybe stand as close as you can to them or even stand face-to-face right in front of them. I guarantee you will catch them off guard and it’ll make your day a little more fun.

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