So, the past two weeks were amazing! I learned so much and I was fortunate enough to be with a group of great, intelligent students, professors and faculty members! Even though I am at home in Virginia, I am still in social stratification mode. I have analyzed things in my local community that I didn’t before. For example, Sunday, June 10th at my church was the first lady’s birthday and I thought about how my church celebrated that event in comparison to the celebration at Greater St. Stephen’s in New Orleans the previous Sunday. Our last reflection really made me think of how hard it is to summarize all the feelings and emotions of the trip into words! A question that was posed during the last student reflection was, “What is one thing that you will take with you from this trup and apply into your life from here on out?” My response that I am sticking with is that I will carry the wonderful art of conversation back with me. People have stories to tell and I didn’t realize how important those stories were until I took this class. I learned so much from conversations that were set up into formal interviews and the conversations that just randomly occur. Our last day out in the city of Clarksdale, I had a conversation with a young mother and her son in a local barber shop. The South seemed to really have a positive effect on me in how I deal with meeting new people! I can truly say that people are waiting for others to discover them. Our class did just that, we went into the Deep South and we learned so much from the people. Social stratification has a new meaning to me than it did three weeks ago when I read an article about it in the reader.  The Deep South also has a new meaning to me. I am so comfortable in a place that I thought I could never feel at home in because of the judgements I had made about people and their beliefs. Some of the steroetypes of the South are true but many aren’t. Instead of thinking of the stereotypes now, I ask myself what can I do to help places like Waveland, MS and New Orleans. And, what can I do to assist poor counties like Tunica, MS. Social Stratification in the Deep South: Summer 2007 will forever and always be a part of me!