The first interaction with my boyfriend, his name is Dillan, it involved me going over to his house to hang out with him, going out to get food and just staying in to watch movies. When going to my boyfriend’s house I have a role of a girlfriend, role is defined as “... the effort to mesh demands of a social position with one’s own identity (ASA Online Glossary) I am loving, calm and giving when I am with him, compared to the other interaction with my mom which my role is being a daughter, which makes me act more serious, aware of what I say and calm as well. The setting of this interaction was in a house, which makes the interaction more personal, since I can talk to my boyfriend and his family members. (scenery and stage props, PPT Imp. Terms of Analyzing a Social Interaction,4) I got to my boyfriend’s house, I walked up to the door and his mom opened the door for me, caught me off guard. I became self-conscious on how I looked and felt when I saw her, the social face I had to put on was being happy, having good posture, and speaking clearly. (the impressions and images an actor is supposed to live up to and is regulated both internally and externally, PPT, 11) I greeted her asked her how she was doing, and what has she been up to. I get nervous when I am around his mom because I want to give a good impression towards her since I am entering her home, and I do not want to be disrespectful. This is an example of impression management (the actions actors take to encourage an audience to form a particular impression) I am self-aware on what to say and what not to say in front of he since I want her to love me, it is basically having a filter when encountering adults, since I am not as comfortable with her like I am with my boyfriend. After conversating with his mom, I go to my boyfriend and we start talking about where to go to get food. I often do not know where to go and my boyfriend get’s frustrated, I started saying with attitude different names of restaurants like “Olive Garden, Pappasito’s, Wing Stop, etc.” I really wanted Olive Garden, so I kept repeating myself and mentioned it about ten times, to emphasize that was the place that I would want to go, I have a bad habit on thinking that he would get the point on where I would want to go but he cannot read minds. Without directly telling him I want to go there, this will be considered my backstage performance. (closer to the real self, less varnished and less an act, rethinkingmarkets.org) on how I knew where I wanted to go but I did not let him know which one, and just kept repeating myself. I was acting a bit hostile, since I get mad when I am hungry. Compared to my frontstage performance which just indicated how hungry I was to Dillan since I started talking about food before even saying hi to him. (the part of the individual’s performance which regularly functions in general and fixed fashion to define the situation for those who observe the performance, PPT Imp. Terms of Analyzing a Social Interaction,4) He got the impression on how I kept emphasizing on going to one of those places I mentioned, and after twenty minutes of discussing we end up going to Olive Garden.

                In my second interaction at my house, I was having a conversation with my mom about how school is going. I played the role of a daughter, the way I was presenting myself was kind and focused. The setting was at my house I feel most comfortable at my home since I do not have to fear feeling judge since they know me so well and know my intentions of everything that I do. Talking to my mom can be stressful since she wants to know everything that I am doing, I often need to think about different defensive practices (strategies to protect one’s own claims of identity, PPT, 7) since she comes at me the wrong way if she does not agree on what I am doing with my career. I start telling her how all my classes are going, specially Anatomy, I let her know a few months back how I was struggling with this class since it is so much material, and the class is divided into lecture and lab. I told her on how the professor was encouraging students to drop the course and take Intro to Anatomy, which scared me it made me think on how hard the semester was going to be for me. Since my mom works during the day she frequently does not see me studying, I thought it would be funny to mess with her and give her a dramaturgical circumspection on telling her how I failed my tests and then showing her how I got A’s in all my lab exams. (deliberating beforehand and taking steps connected to putting on the best show, PPT, 6) My front stage performance was to entertain myself on seeing my mom get mad at me and make her laugh after. While my backstage performance was feeling guilty on telling her this false information since I knew it would upset her, and I still did it knowing that she will probably push me or slightly hit my arm to let me know how immature that was, and indeed she acted like I thought. In this interaction I was playful but serious, since I am so comfortable when talking to my mom and we were just in the living room talking to each other but compared to the first situation I felt more comfortable at my own home, than at my boyfriend’s since I know him fully but not his relatives.

                In each setting I recognize on how I let different sides of me show, for example with my boyfriend I am goofy and loud since he is my best friend I can just be myself. In contrast with being with my mother I act more serious, I become submissive since I follow everything that she says, and I try to seem like I have my life together even though I do not, in her words “Your room is a mess.”  During these interactions I could see Goffman’s dramaturgical theory being played out on how everyone is going to react a certain way depending on their reference group, the setting as well the tone of each conversation.