Throughout my life journey, I have been able to create and build on new relationships, and by the help of people in my social and personal life, I have been able to construct my identity. When taking a look at my personal network of people I feel that I share a strong connection to, I see my family and friends, and realize the majority of them are attending some kind of post-secondary institution. Indeed, this reveals how I have been surrounded by people who seek knowledge, value higher education, and they want to be successful in the future, so I believe it has created a ripple effect, and taught me to strive for the same. Even more, the ages of my friends are relatively close to mine because I believe that I can relate better to their situations and seek advice from those who are of the same maturity level. If I compare my personal network to my classmates such as Abbey and Danica, they are similar in the way that they have bonds with people of similar age, but they do not have strong connections to coaches or teachers like I do. In fact, I have managed to stay in close contact with my high school basketball coach and grade 11 Biology teacher because they saw potential in me and always supported me as a student athlete. In addition, their guidance and mentoring helped me strive to become a better basketball player and without them, I would not be playing for the University of British Columbia. It seems that all the groups of people who have and continue to influence my life, want to see me accomplish great things and develop as a person in every way.
If someone were to analyze my closest relationships throughout my childhood and adolescence, it would be my family members as they have provided me with financial assistance and more importantly, a loving home. There’s no doubt that without them, my sociable and outgoing personality would not have flourished because I have always been exposed to a caring environment. My network can say a lot about me but I would say the most crucial piece is that I have managed to maintain a lot of relationships in the past to the present. I would say it explains why I have become more of an independent person when I moved out of my home to live by myself at UBC because I know I will always have a support system behind me in case I ever fall or need a hand to reach out to. On the other end, my least strongest ties in my social network would probably be the acquaintances I have encountered through my classes but they have played a fundamental role in helping me feel better connected to the campus as a freshman. Certainly, I know that because of all these people I have made connections to in various ways, they have given me the opportunity to aspire to become a confident and hard working person in order to achieve my goals.