Writing Topic #1 pg. 371

In general most peoples tastes change with age, for example as children the majority of us played with toys and had imaginary friends. As teenagers most of us were more concerned with the things people around us thought were cool. We dressed, acted and were into things that seemed to be fun and popular at the time. We did all these things in accordance with the segment of high school society that we felt most comfortable and most interested in. As adults it seems that the majority of us have learned to follow our won paths and take part in the activities we are interested in.
For myself I have found that there are some tastes that have not changed with time. Most of my life has been spent in jeans a tee shirt and flip flops, Ive always loved country music, which I was raised on, and I have always preferred a good comedy to a dramatic movie. I do not know that my individual tastes actually define who I am but I do know that they obviously show people, to an extent, who I am and what I am about in a superficial way. We all look to how other people dress and how they present themselves to tell us if they are “like us” or possible friends. Considering all the things that are of interest to me I can see that many of them have to do with how I was raised and who I was raised by. For example in my family owning a truck is a staple and seeing how high you can lift it is a challenge, my dad, my uncles and my brother all have trucks and I guess the good memories I have not just of them but also the cars have influenced my preference and interest in them. On the flip side another side of my family is strongly interested in music, al kinds and types, and art, now I cannot play or paint like some of my relatives but I do have an equally strong love of music and a beautiful piece of art.
In contrast to this there are some traits I have and some things that interest me that are boring to many of the people I know. For example, I have always loved, bordered on obsessed, tennis and during Grand Slam tournaments I have been known to spend hours watching the many different matches offered. So I think that sometimes the things we are interested in do not come from history or influence, sometimes the things we are most passionate about are born into us, they are inherent.
Sometimes I think many of us dress in a certain way because, like in high school we sometimes want to highlight certain facts or features of who we are. For example, many of my friends have decals on their cars with brand names like Volcom, Fox and Burton imprinted on the back window and they do it because first of all it shows other people what they are interested in and also they do it because it is like a signal to other people about the “group” you belong to, I think as human beings this is one of the most vital components to social interaction, we all use symbols, be it clothes, music we listen to or activities we participate in to show people who we think we are and who we indentify with. Therefore, I feel that we all look to symbols to decide who we interact with and who shares our likes and interests.