A Sociological Mirror

When I started SOCI287, I expected to pick up a few new perspectives on social issues. Maybe learn about inequality, culture, and institutions, the usual stuff. But what I didn’t expect was how much of the course would turn into a mirror, showing me things I hadn’t fully seen in my own life. I thought I would be learning about “society” but instead, I ended up learning about myself, where my beliefs came from, how my identity was shaped, and why certain things that used to feel personal were actually deeply political.

The earliest shift happened when I was introduced to the idea of the sociological imagination. It was one of those concepts that didn’t just make sense, it immediately made everything make more sense. For a long time, I had felt certain pressures and inner tensions as an immigrant, as a son, as someone moving between two cultures. I had chalked most of that up to personal struggle. But this concept gave me a new frame. It showed me that my story wasn’t just mine, it was part of a larger structure that shaped and often constrained it. What I had seen as internal pressure turned out to be connected to systems like immigration, cultural norms, and economic class.

As I moved through the course, I started noticing how many of my values and habits weren’t really “mine.” I grew up in a Sikh Punjabi household where ideas like obedience, emotional restraint, and family honour weren’t explicitly taught, they were just there. No one told me what to do, but I always knew what was expected. At first, I saw this mostly as culture, something that gave me a sense of pride and identity. But the more I reflected, the more I realized that culture also has weight. It can guide, but it can also pressure. I started understanding that culture is not just a gift, it’s also a force, sometimes shaping us in ways that conflict with our personal growth.

That realization led me to rethink how socialization works. I had always thought of it as something that happens in childhood and then fades. But this course helped me see that socialization is ongoing, that every interaction, institution, and relationship teaches us how to behave, what to believe, and who we should be. It made me reflect on how I was shaped by school and religion, how I absorbed media stereotypes, and how emotional pressure was often used in place of outright rules. Some of those lessons helped me. Others held me back. Recognizing that was a moment of clarity I didn’t expect to get from a course.

One area that hit especially close to home was gender. I hadn’t thought much about masculinity before this, it was just the air I breathed. I now see how subtle and deep those norms run. I had grown up understanding that “being a man” meant being self-reliant, emotionally controlled, focused on success. It wasn’t something anyone directly taught me, it was reinforced through small reactions, expectations, and even compliments. At the same time, I saw women in my life, like my mother, carrying a second layer of responsibility, not just working but also handling domestic and emotional labour, quietly and without recognition. What stood out to me wasn’t just the inequality, it was how invisible it often is, even to those living it. That realization didn’t come from a textbook, it came from connecting the dots between what I had always seen and what I finally understood.

Race and identity were things I’d thought about before, especially living in Canada as an immigrant. But I hadn’t had the language to describe what I was feeling. Microaggressions, racialization, intersectionality, these weren’t just terms; they were tools that helped me process so many past experiences. Being asked where I’m “really from,” having people speak more slowly to me, being left out of certain social groups, I used to dismiss these things or try to work harder to prove I belonged. Now I understand that belonging isn’t just about effort, it’s also about how systems perceive and place you. I’ve started to see my experience not as isolated or just unfortunate, but as a reflection of deeper social structures.

There was a point in the course when I realized I had been carrying around some heavy assumptions about success. I had grown up believing in meritocracy, that if you work hard, you succeed. And if you fail, it means you didn’t try hard enough. This was something I never questioned. But as we explored capitalism, class systems, and the idea of false consciousness, I began to feel that belief unravel. I had always thought opportunity in Canada was equal. But now I understand how factors like social capital, inherited wealth, racial bias, and institutional barriers change everything. It’s not that effort is meaningless, it’s that it doesn’t play out on a level field. That shift in thinking was hard at first. But ultimately, it brought me a strange kind of comfort. It helped me release some of the pressure I put on myself, and it made me more empathetic toward others.

Another concept that stuck with me was the idea of ideological institutions. This really opened my eyes to how schools, media, and even religion teach us not just facts, but values, often without us realizing it. I started reflecting on some of the things I had heard growing up: “Life isn’t fair.” “Don’t complain, just work harder.” “Poor people just didn’t try enough.” These statements now sound different to me. They don’t just reflect frustration; they reflect an ideology that discourages questioning and encourages individual blame. Once I started noticing these narratives, I couldn’t unsee them. I hear them in advertisements, political speeches, and even everyday conversations. Recognizing them doesn’t make them disappear, but it gives me a better chance of resisting them.

Even the final assignment about how climate change connects to sociology revealed a link I hadn’t made before this course. I had always seen climate change as something for scientists and environmentalists to deal with, distant from everyday life. But now I understand it as a deeply social issue, one rooted in injustice. While it affects everyone, it doesn’t affect everyone equally. Indigenous communities, low- income groups, and racialized populations often live closest to environmental hazards and furthest from the resources needed to recover. Meanwhile, those most responsible, corporations, wealthy nations, and political elites, are often shielded by privilege and distance. That realization shifted the way I saw the crisis. It’s not just environmental, it’s ethical. Climate change became not just a scientific or political issue, but a reflection of whose lives are valued, and whose are seen as disposable.

What all of these realizations have in common is that they helped me see the links between individual experience and broader systems. I used to feel like I was constantly caught between two worlds, between tradition and change, between cultures, between expectations. But now I see those tensions not as personal failures, but as signs that I’m navigating overlapping structures, gender, race, class, culture, all at once. It hasn’t made life easier, but it’s made it clearer. And that clarity is powerful. This course didn’t just give me new ideas. It gave me new habits of thinking. I now ask different questions. When I hear a claim or see a news story, I wonder: Who benefits from this message? What power does it protect? What voices are missing? I’ve started noticing silences, the things that don’t get said, the stories that aren’t told, the people who aren’t represented. And I’ve realized that noticing those gaps is the first step to challenging them.

More than anything, SOCI287 taught me that inequality is not random or inevitable. It’s built into systems. It’s reinforced through repetition, socialization, and silence. But because it’s built, it can be changed. That’s probably the most hopeful thing I’ve taken away from this course. We’re not stuck. We’re socialized, yes, but that also means we can be re-socialized. We can reflect, challenge, and rebuild. Looking back, I see this course as more than just an academic requirement. It was a turning point. It gave me words for things I had felt but couldn’t explain. It helped me unlearn ideas that limited me. And it gave me a sense of connection, not just to classmates or theories, but to a much bigger picture of how society works and how we can change it.

I’m walking away from SOCI287 more critical, more compassionate, and more conscious. I’ve learned that understanding society isn’t just about memorizing concepts, it’s about using them to live differently. It’s about recognizing patterns, asking questions, and believing that things can be better. And most importantly, it’s about realizing that change starts with awareness, the kind this course helped me build, one insight at a time.