Interview

I don't know if this was cheating, but I had my fiance fill out my interview...a week before we're getting married.

Here were her responses:

a. What do you think my strengths/challenges are for this class? Strengths: John loves to learn and he loves to learn by doing. The fact that this class requires him to do a project where he gets to learn about people and what is affecting them allows him to study something that he loves. He is also a problem solver and given that this project requires him to research information that could lead to a solution for a problem, he will find motivation there. Challenges: John may want to know too much. It sounds like this project is a large project with many small moving parts, one of which he is involved in. He will need to hone in and focus on the one task assigned to him. 

b. Am I a good collaborator? Yes. John tends to step into leadership roles with in groups when he sees a void, but asks questions well and listens to the answers. He fosters involvement from everyone in a group if they want to collaborate. 

c. Am I a good communicator (written, verbal, visual)? Yes.

d. How well do you think I work with groups of people I don't know or who have different experiences and perspectives than I do? John works very well with people he hasn't met before. Once he has met someone, they become a friend. He enjoys conversations with people who think differently than him, and can communicate what he believes respectfully. 

e. How well do I synthesize theory and practice? Do you see me more invested in theory or practical applications? John has a healthy balance between the two. Depending on the situation, he can think more intellectually about a problem, but when push comes to shove, if you need someone to get the job done, he will do it.

f. Did you ever think of me as an agent of change [Activist, Advocate, Invested in community empowerment] Yes or no? Explain. Yes, all the time. When you see a need, you meet it. You can care about people and making the world a better place for them. A lot of times people just talk about it, but I've seen you, many times, get an email about something or someone in need and you immediately start contacting people. It's encouraging to watch.

g. What do you think I need to work on to be a better student/person/global citizen? Keep getting to know the character of God and he will continue to teach you what he wants you to learn and he will continue to put the people in your way he wants you to love on!

As I think about her answers, I am very encouraged. I think about the how someone may have answered these questions ten years ago, and I am happy to see the transformation that I have gone through. I am grateful for the way God has worked in my life - for the people and situations that have impacted me, and the way my heart has been bent to lend a hand (or arm and leg) to whoever needs one. 

I am grateful that I am even in a position to continue being equipped to serve others, and that I have the capacity to serve others fully when the call comes in. I am thankful that such a class, or even this list of questions, exist, to be able to see that what I think in mind is also how others see me acting. 

I am inspired to continue pursuing change in my heart and in my actions, in order that others might benefit. I'm excited to continue along this path and see where it all ends up, and how many others see how I act in response to needs and are themselves inspired to do so. 

This interview made me smile. Now time to get back to work and fix some more brokenness. 

Cultural Assesment

I selected my boots, for the fact that I’m a Texan, born and raised, and no matter where I go, the boots come with me. They represent gentlemanliness, the willingness to stand up for the little guy or a lady, the ability to fix pretty much anything, and the fact that once you’re done working, you’re ready to dance and drink – all things that were ingrained with me through my socialization as a Texan. As they are also Luchesse’s, they represent my socioeconomic status, and their size, 13D, shows that I am a large man, but still nimble ;) 

     

My wallet was also picked to represent my SES, because the top 1% of the world’s wealth in walking around campus with us, but also to show my status as a socialized American, with my Driver’s License up to date and my University ID – going to school because the modern world says I need letters after my name to be taken seriously. The look of the wallet is also representative of the style that I have been socialized with, picking things out of the world to inspire my style.      

The ring box was chosen as a symbol of my roots – coming from my grandparents, Brazilian, Italian, and still very American and being handed down through the institution of marriage, as I have been socialized to see it, in a Christian home, and it held the engagement ring for the woman I marry next week, which is another symbol that our society says that I need to give her to express my intent to marry her and my love for her. The fact that it was a hand me down ring though, still shows my SES is not upper class, and that I have been socialized to budget and manage my money well, through watching the faults and successes of those around me.      

I chose my Bible because it is the one thing that has competed with my socialization to the norms of the world, while socializing me in many other ways. It shows my religion and the version, NIV Study Bible, shows my socialization as a nerd, to still seek knowledge and history at all times, even in my worship and pursuit of righteousness. To me, it doesn't just represent the figure of my worship and my hope and strength, and the reason that I'm bent toward loving others the way I do, but it represents my past, and growing up in the church, and being socialized by the church, in as many ways as people outside of the church try to socialize you. Ultimately, my Bible reminds me that I'm free from conforming to the socialization of the world, or conforming to legalistic religion.      

Lastly, I picked my Falling Whistle, which comes from a non-profit I worked for raising funds to rehabilitate child soldiers in the Congo - it shows the ability of our generation to look past social norms and prejudices to help those that the old world sees as different than us, but we still as human. Then again, it shows how we have been socialized to view on-profits and non-profit work as a hip thing to do. I shows my American ideology, that I can tell a story, raise money, and then throw money at a problem to try and fix it, but it also shows my socialization as a Christian and a Texan, always looking to humble myself, serve justice and fight for the innocent.

Reflecting on this experience, I think about the fact that this is the third time this year that I've been asked to reflect on my own socialization. That fact causes me to think about the fact that I have to think about where I come from and how i'm formed before I can go out and expect to be able to empathize with others and understand where they've come from. The freedom that comes in understanding how you've been shaped helps give you grace for others, understanding that they too have been formed by their collective socialization. 

Along with the happy hopeful feeling that comes with doing this, I always seem to find myself getting a bit upset - whether I'm upset with the fact that we are all so gullible and susceptible to society's pressures, or that the people at the top of society would dare to socialize us in some of the ways they do, or even that we've built a society that fools people into thinking that they are different while it collectively white washes them all into consumers of whatever society is producing...I don't know; I just get annoyed and a bit frustrated thinking about it.

Then I get happy. I try to remember that there is joy in how I was formed, and that I was formed this way for a purpose. I remember that my socialization doesn't have to conclude in me eating out of society's hand, but I can become a proponent of change, and instrument of hope and justice, and when looking at socialization from my new perspective, I can find its roots and pick up my pruning shears.      

Heyo

So HI!

I'm John. John Palmieri. 

I'm a Texas raised military kid whose spent most of my adult life bouncing from one thing to another, just trying to figure out my place in it all. 

I'm not your typical college student, finding my way back into the halls of knowledge as I turn in my third decade, but I'm focused up now and know where I'm heading this go round. 

It's a curious thing, blending the life of an adult with that of a student, yet as I shuffle getting married, paying off debt, setting class schedules, loving on friend's babies, and somehow reading these giants books we're given, I have one thing that remains the same - my faith. 

It is my faith that has brought me to this point, and my faith that has pointed me toward giving up a life of ladder climbing to pursue justice and rights for the orphan. Orphans have struck my heart as a people group that are low on the totem pole and I'm ready to fight for them. 

Orphan care is a social issue that not only resides right here in Austin, but reaches far across the world, and so I plan to follow it wherever it leads me. Starting here, and then changing the world. ;)

Looking close to home, at East Austin, a place that I've lived and loved, I turned to see what my new found friend Tyler thought of the area. He is new to Austin, as of January 2014, and lives in Northeast Austin. 

He sees East Austin as a focal spot for artisan businesses and barbecue joints, and remembers something about the University of Texas instigating conversations about a light rail system running through that area. 

He admits he doesn't know much about East Austin, because his remote residential status keeps him from seeing it. He's only driven through it a few times, and from those moments he has come to the conclusion that East Austin is less populated and less popular, less developed and there seems to be less money. 

Generally, he finds himself indifferent about the area, and will only venture into that area if there's good food or good beer for him to enjoy, which he believes is how most people probably think, considering it's just "less busy" every time he's over there. 

  

Looking in to the history of East Austin, I can read about the same things that I have heard for the last few years - East Austin was designed be a negro community and has survived as a neglected community since the 1920's. It was the cultural epicenter for black residents. It survived through the integration of the 1970's, only to find itself in a hot spot for prime real estate. East Austin became a place that was cut off from the rest of the city, and even though downtown business folk could see it from their office windows, they dare not venture there for any longer than it took to pick up a taco for lunch. As the 1990's and 2000's have watched the gentrification process begin, some propose that East Austin will soon look like Clarksville, completely debunk of its history and culture. 

The displacement of residents that have lived their for generations has seen the local businesses lose their clientele, which only results in their packing up and moving out. The cycle of gentrification has begun and will continue to chew away at the cultural fabric East Austin until it is no more. 

Our adventure begins in East Austin, where we work to see if we can support the community that is trying to hold on to what they know and love...their homes, their businesses, their culture.