K.S. Papa 51109166
The networks we create throughout our lives have a significant impact on the opportunities, experiences, and accomplishments we have or can reach. These networks, which are shaped by family ties and social capital that have a big influence on our social capital, mostly go beyond our own efforts. My aunt has played a big and important role in establish and widen my academic networks, showing how well the social ties of family connections and relationships work in creating and maintaining social capital and personal connections. Journey, my aunt's time in university serves as evidence of the value of social networks in the universities setting. She built a strong and varied network of connections by actively interacting with teachers, staff, and extracurricular activities while forging her route. Her initiative not only made her time at university more enjoyable, but it also created the foundation for her social capital to grow. My aunt had created a foundation that I found useful as I started my academic journey. Her reputation and current connections within the university community gave me access to an already established network of friends and acquaintances. With the help of my aunt, I was able to fit in with university life, whether it was through group study sessions set up by friends, such as housemates or people who do the same course and introductions at social events. Beyond mere acquaintance, these connections blossomed into genuine friendships, created by the common bond with my aunt. Shared experiences, interests, and goals served as the foundation for meaningful relationships and the initial familial connection. In essence, my aunt's network became my own, providing me with a sense of belonging and support in the university environment. Through these networks I learned the ways of university life and how to work through it. Thanks to these networks life at university has been less stressful. 
I also created my own social networks through friends that do the same course. Through this I gain knowledge about assignments, tests and quizzes' that I did not know about. Thorough the social networks of my classmates, I gain access to other friends in other courses. Through social gatherings such as sporting events and club actives I gained social networks in other years, that come with experience and access to higher ups.  For example, the house committee gives us access to the residence's officers. The student tutors give us access to lectures, lectures give us access to the dean and so forth.
 

Before my first social anthropology class I had the belief that a primitive society consisted of people who live in hunts, hunt their food and wear animal skins. I believed they were primitive as they were not as technologically advanced as we were. I had realised after the class that they were in fact not primitive but were just a society with different beliefs and way of life. Another concept that changed my view was exoticization. To exoticize a culture is to create difference by romanticizing other cultures and societies. An example of how I did this was by seeing other cultures with one singular idea such Egypt. I never thought that they could be a modern society with cars and instead imagined pyramids and camels as a form of transport. I had unintentionally been creating difference and I had boxed all of them into a singular idea without even going there. I had been stereotyping them. This is all forms of othering.  The concept of othering had the biggest impact on me as I had unintentionally been doing it all my life, it gave me an entirely new mindset and changed my entire view on different cultures.