Week 2: Family Culture

First of all, if I were told that I had to evacuate with minimal belongings and did not know where I would end up, I would scared out of mind for me and all family members –here and far away. I would be having an anxiety attack and would have to get a hold of myself for my children and family. Although due to many sad incidents, I have lost my son and have lost many valuable pictures and items; so I have tried not to get too attached to material items. Nevertheless, if I had to choose only three objects to take with me, I would, first, choose to bring my photo album because I would not be returning to the life I once knew so I would want to keep those visual memories near me. Second, I would choose to bring my cell phone. Although it is not a family item, this would be a way that I could keep in contact with my friends and family, who may have their outlet of communication. Assuming there would be coverage wherever I would end up, I would be able to stay in touch with whomever at all times. I know that this is not an item that most will not choose to bring because it does not have any valuable significance to one’s heart. Last item I would bring would be my laptop so that I could keep up with what was going on in the world and I could save valuable, helpful information, such as new pictures that we would make with one another in our new location. I know it seems like I am all about technology and nothing is dear to my heart but losing my son has changed the way I really view material objects but that is a whole other story.

Since choosing my items and explaining why I chose them, I arrive to my area only to be told to choose one of the three items to take with me and I am devastated again. So I guess I would have to choose my cell phone because I would definitely want to be able to stay in contact with my friends and family and actually hear their voices. I know that I could probably have a face-to-face conversation on the laptop but my older family members do not know how to work a laptop good enough to have me feel secure with keeping in contact with them on it. Although I would be sad with having to part with my beloved pictures, I would know within that I would always have my memories of whatever had been captured on each picture.

An insight that I have gained is that we are all a part of a family culture that helped mold who we are as a person. We took those lessons taught by our family members and used them to mingle with others, such as friends or peers, in different social settings, such as school, the neighborhood or random “get-together”. From absorbing other's cultural influences and using the ones that we feel can compliment what we already claims as our own anyway, we take those and mesh them all together to function in a society -that has been influenced for so long by the dominant culture. In a nutshell, we –as humans do whatever we have to do to survive as well as excel in life to be considered successful, even if it is measured by the “dominant culture’s scale of success”.