Social Capital

I knew before moving up here last fall that it would just take some time before I felt like I found my niche within the ward, and at school with everyone, but I didn't realize how valuable it is to have social capital.

So'cial Cap'ital, n. 1. of or relating to reputation. 2. concept that refers to connections within and between social networks as well as connections among individuals.

It's taken some time for me to really build any up, but I had kind of forgotten how nice it is to have your name precede you. When you have social capital within a ward, school, or whatever, people are more welcoming and open. It's interesting too, because it's not like the people I associate with are at all suspicious or guarded, but just having someone else say things like, "Oh Chris? Yeah, he's cool, you should get to know him" or whatever it is that someone might say (hopefully good), then it really makes life a lot easier as far as being able to reach out and get to know those around you.

At home I think I had a good amount of that just because I have a lot of ties to different people in Orange County, and I attended nearly all church-sponsored functions for a few years. Coming back here, however, I had to start over almost completely from scratch. It's only been within the last month or two where I finally feel like I can move with some relative ease between different friends and people, and that's only because I've finally been able to get some of that all important social capital.

I don't know why I'm even bothering to bring this up. I just thought it was kind of interesting. It's something that you never think about until it becomes lacking, and you kind of dismiss it as not really being valid, but it's real and people do rely on it to make evaluations of you.