My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

• A description of the three items you would choose and how you would explain to others what each of these items means to you

First, I would take my family's photo album. As a family, we often gather at my grandmother's house and look back at old pictures while we laughed and talked about the good ole' days. These photos helped me discover who I am and how I fit into this big world we live in. Second, I  would bring my jewelry box. This box holds my earrings and necklaces given to me throughout the years as well as pieces that belonged to the women in my family who have passed away. These items are treasures to me and hopefully one day I will be able to pass them to my two daughters. Last, I would take a flashlight. Whenever there was a storm or power outage, we would gather around the flashlight and tell stories. This is important to me because those stories must live on as they represent my family in so many ways!

• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you

I would be torn between choosing the family's photo album and jewelry box. I might even have a small tantrum! I would explain to whoever is at the gate that they can have my flashlight but I must keep my other items. Our family has already lost everything and I should be able to keep these two things as they are an important part of my life.   

• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise,

I think that often times we are not aware of how important something is to us until it is gone or we have to let it go.   I am giving my mother a 66th birthday party in a couple of weeks. Part of the process was to go through this album and pull out pictures for a slideshow that I am creating. Let me go back for a bit. Two years ago, a week before thanksgiving, I lost my only surviving grandparent. Since then, I have not had the strength nor the courage to look through the album. Well today I did! I laughed and cried. It brought back so many good memories I hold with my family and realized how much I missed doing this. Although my grandmother was not physically here to do this with me; she will forever live in my heart!