Upon analyzing my personal network, I discovered that school, as an institution, has a great impact on us as individuals. When comparing E-I indexes with my group, we established that context and education were measurements of high homophily. We agreed that most of the people in our networks were those who we met in school and university. For me specifically, most of the people in my network were from high school. Because we spend a significant amount of time in these institutions, we often rely on them as the foundation for our relationships. When comparing gender E-I indexes with my group, I noticed that mine had almost complete homophily. I realized that the reason for this may be due to the fact that I went to an all-girls high school. However, I knew that other girls had friends outside of school who were boys, as where I did not. I reflected upon this and decided that this might be due to my personality. In realizing this, I also discovered that the person who I am today was largely shaped by my high school years. In high school, being constantly surrounded by girls gave me a sense of comfort, familiarity and security. I liked all of my friends and I felt safe. Because of this, I felt like I did not need to expand my social network and look for friends outside of school. This clearly influenced the amount of social interaction I had during my adolescent years. Not only did I not have that much interaction with people outside of school, but I also lacked a significant amount of interaction with the opposite gender. As a result, I became reserved and shy when it came to making new friends. I began to find myself being more comfortable around girls as that was what I was used to for the past five years. When reflecting back at the friends I had in my co-ed elementary school, the gender was more balanced. This justifies that the fact the type of institution has a strong influence on who you become as a person, and who you unconsciously choose to associate yourself with.
Furthermore, I attended a private high school where the norm was that everyone goes to university after graduation. In my network, all of my friends went to a post-secondary institution. In my perspective, I believe that the quality of education affects the mindset of the community which then influences you and your aspirations. Although it was each of our individual choices to attend university, it was actually our society, our networks and our institutions that made the decision for us. For me, it seemed as though university was a given and that attending post-secondary is the instinctive next step in our lives. As seen in my network, all of my friends attended post-secondary so I did not hesitate to make the same decision as well. In addition, preparing for university was all my high school talked about. Based on this observation, I believe that not being able to attend university is not just a personal trouble, but a public issue based on the quality of education an individual receives. If students are not encouraged and motivated by their teachers and peers to attend university, they will not see it as a “norm.” It can also lower their standards, their confidence and affect the goals they wish to pursue in life. Clearly, our education, as well as the people around us, shape the decisions we make and the mentality we have towards our future and our aspirations.