This weekend me and three friends went to the Nebraska Huskers game! It was so much fun! We went down Friday night and stayed at my boyfriends sisters house and hung out there all night. It was great to see everybody. On Saturday, we got to sleep in a little then went to Parker's Smokehouse in Lincoln. It was the best restaraunt I've been to in a long time I think. There was so much to pick from. After we ate, we went to a friends house to hang out before the game. There were so many people from our graduating class there and it was so great to see so many people and it was a lot of fun. Saturday night came the game! We walked there from my friends house and got to the game right as they were doing the tunnel walk. It's great looking around and seeing all that red, seeing that there are that many people in one community that are all coming together for one thing..Husker Pride!! We had so much fun. After the game there were fireworks since it was the 300th consecutive sellout. It was great. We went to another friends house afterward then went one other place. I woke up Sunday with no voice and I was so sore from jumping up and down during the game. I had a great weeekend!

Self-Concept

"To a large extent, your self-concept is formed by what others tell you about yourself, especially during the formative years of childhood"

I agree with this statement to an extent. Although the first six years are very critical in a child's development, these children can grow out of how they had been raised. For example, individuals that were neglected as children tend to think that no one cares about them and they have difficulties forming good relationships. As children grow older, they may grow a strong relationship with someone and grow out of these difficult times. They may grow up to have a great job and no one would ever guess they had a tough childhood.
But, for the most part, I do agree with this statement. It says in the book, the way the children had been raised greatly affects their self-concept as adults. For example authoritative parenting has a lot of positive aspects such as self-control, ability to cope with stress, and good behavior. Authoritarian parenting has a worse effect on children such as moodiness, fear, and stress. Permissive parenting produces rebellion, low self-control and low achievement. This is average for children. They say that children that grow up in a bad environment are more likely to grow up in a bad environment and if a child grows up in a good environment, there is more of a chance the child will succeed.
My parents always tried to encourage things but they let me decide what I wanted to do. I never felt neglected and I have more of the characteristics of the authoritative parenting. I have good self-control, I have never really acted out and I cope with stress pretty well. My parents always wanted me to dance when I was growing up and I always refused. They gave me the choice of what I wanted to do. They always set high standards for grades and behavior in school but they left it up to me to get good grades and do my own homework but they helped me when I needed help. This showed me that they were there for me but they pretty much 'put the ball in my court'.
That statement does have a lot of truth to it. If a child is loved in those critical years of their life, they will have a better self-concept and better self-esteem.

Invitation to Change

There are several things that I would like to change about myself. One thing is that sometimes I tend to be too harsh on myself. I think it would be good for me if I would tend to focus on the positive things that I do and be proud of the accomplishments that I make. Instead, I look at how I could have done it differently and how it could be better and I tend to beat myself up about it. If I could focus more on the positive emotions, I think that I would be a happier person because what I do now just points out my weaknesses. I also realize that when I exercise I am a happier person. I feel better about myself and I see things in a more positive light. I feel like I am doing things to make me feel better and look better and, as a result, I have higher self-esteem. When I am harsh on myself, it lowers my self-esteem and it makes me feel even worse. I think this semester, what I want to change is to think more positively. I also want to exercise more often, maybe about three times a week. Both of these things would make me feel better about myself and maybe I would have higher self-esteem and more self-confidence.