Stereotypical Title

Everyone gets stereotyped. Whether you come from a ghetto in the Bronx or you come from the perfectionist white family, everyone has an opinion whether it is voiced or not. All of the authors in this section have experienced various stresses of stereotyping.

To this day, I'm still tacked as the good white kid. I grew up in not a financial WEALTHY family, but I had a wealthy family in heart and spirit. Yes, we're set in this downfall of economy, but I have always been the Colonel's kid. Always expected to be the best at everything I do, not make mistakes, get good grades, and keep the family name clean, I have had to break barriers between myself and friends that come from the enlisted side of the Marine Corps. We are two different sectors of life living in the same area, but no one has built a system to incorporate bonding between children of the two sects.

I can't say that I've ever had anything too negative said about me for being a Colonel's kid. The only stereotypes I deal with today deal with my boyfriend because he is on the E-side. We work fine, but my family expects him to screw up constantly and to not be able to provide the life that I have thus far lived if we ever decided to pursue something further with out relationship.

People don't understand that with this stereotype, you have to step in our shoes and see what it's like. Stereotyping in my case makes me press harder to make my relationship work. It doesn't take money to make some women, including me, happy. It takes a lot of love to make things work, not a big bank account.

Stereotyping has affected my life, but not to the degrees that it may affect others. I have been given everything from the get-go and I'm making my own way. No stereotype will make or break me.