Sociology, the Person I Chose to Write My Paper on Is My Best Friend

The person I chose to write my paper on is my best friend of almost 10 years, Virginia Robles. Virginia is 24 years old female, married, with one child. She and I went to high school and worked together as servers at a small Italian restaurant in our town. At first, she and I did not like each other at all, but came to be best friends within matters of weeks. She still lives in Tennessee, which is my hometown. To this day, even though I live in Georgia, she and I still are best friends and we still talk multiple times a week. She has been my closest and best friend for such a long time and she really is a great role model. She has had to overcome many obstacles in life but has not let any of that stop her from achieving her goals of being a hairdresser and having a family. She has a very busy life and plays many roles in society.

Virginia has many roles in society. Society has different social statuses that refer to the position that someone occupies. That position can carry great deal of prestige or may have little prestige (Henslin, 2010). In reference to Virginia and her status, she would have ascribed status and achieved status. Ascribed status is involuntary, not asking or choosing, such as her being a daughter. Achieved status would be voluntary, those that you earn of accomplish, such as Virginia being a study, a friend, a spouse, and mother. Each status provides guidelines for how we are to act and feel (Henslin, 2010). All humans have social statuses because they are an essential part of the social structure.

With everyday life, we have roles. These roles can vary depending on where you are at and what you are doing. In Virginia's case, she is at work a lot of the time and she has to use her social setting, her appearance, and her manner to communicate information with her clients. This is called sign-vehicles. Her social setting is her job as a hairdresser. Her appearance would be what she uses such as scissors, thinning shears, hair color and so on. The third sign-vehicle is manner, the attitude