In high school, I made wrong conclusions during my adolescent stage. Joining high school was a step higher for me, and I was enthusiastic about joining clubs and challenging my abilities. I wanted to be in the military when I was young, so I worked towards that. I was courageous among all my friends and did not let anything come in the way of achieving my dreams. Immediately I joined high school; I joined a program that fitted my interests. The program required me to wear the military uniform while in school. My classmates did not find it cool, and I, therefore, received criticism for wearing the uniform.
This discouraged and intimidated my self-esteem, which was unlike me. My classmates would have negative attention towards me. Most of my classmates were in the sports club, and they were the ones who were criticizing me. I was uncomfortable even though I was doing what I loved most. The stereotypes always found a way to make me feel out of place, and therefore I developed resentment towards them. I would disregard them in every place I found them.
One of our teachers gave an assignment, and as I was conducting my research, I read on stereotyping in adolescents and how it develops. From the study, adolescents try to seek acceptance in the community through identifying with their environment. It influences the students’ behavior both in school and at home. Stereotyping shapes how teenagers explore their adolescence (Ross et al., 2020). It leads to categorization as adolescents seek approval through groupings with their peers. In this case, the sports club was a group that helped the students to feel superior.
Later, I joined the peer group in school; I learned a lot about stereotypes, which made me understand I have wrongly concluded about the sports club. Those criticizing me faced challenges in their personal life that made them bitter. When I joined the peer group, I found group mates that became close to me. It was a family that stood by me and understood my passion for the military. They, therefore, defended me from people who criticized me because of the uniform.
Although they would joke about my uniform, it was friendly, and they understood my position. They respected my passion and taught me that there was no reason to resent those who criticized me. I thought that the sports club was superior to other clubs, which led me to think they were better than everyone else in school. Since they were popular, they made the other students think that popularity was vital. Although they used stereotyping in the wrong way, stereotyping is good.
People need to assure themselves that everything is fine and therefore stereotype both objects and other people around them. Stereotyping challenges adolescents to grow up and change their mindset when they learn that what they have been thinking was wrong (Shin et al., 2018). Therefore, adolescents should be taught not to rely on stereotypes to prevent the negative effects it brings to those in the community. Teenagers should be ready to learn and not make assumptions due to an event occurring at one point in their lives.
References
Ross, T., Wake, A., & Colisson, P. (2020). Stereotyping and profiling. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 75(1), 75-80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077695820904988
Shin, Y., Lee, E. S., & Seo, Y. (2018). Does traditional stereotyping of career as male affect college women’s, but not college men’s, career decision self-efficacy and ultimately their career adaptability? Sex Roles, 81(1-2), 74-86. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0976-7
