My Family Culture

If I were to be relocated to a country with a culture completely different than my own, I would take with me a mason jar, a jackalope, and a picture of Mount Rainier.

The mason jar and jackalope symbolize my mother’s and father’s sides of the family, respectfully, and what values and traditions I have learned from them. My mother’s side of the family has a tradition of making different types of candy every Christmas, as well as canning jam, fruits, and vegetables in the summer and fall. I will always remember being a young girl, helping my mother with these tasks, then later learning to do them myself. Not only was making these things a tradition, it is a part of who I am as a homemaker, and a way to provide for my family.

The jackalope reminds me of my father’s side of the family (mostly from the mid-West). My grandparents and parents have taught me about unconditional love, and that family is very important (two values that are a part of my family culture). My dad’s father (Papa) has taken care his wife (Gramma) for over 30 years as multiple sclerosis has taken away her mobility and independence. They are an example, to me, of what marriage and unconditional love is. It also reminds me of a second family tradition (again, food-based) of the Greek pastries made around Christmas. Gramma may not be able to bake, but she can certainly tell us which glaze to use on the kouroulakia, that the kourebiethes need to sit in powdered sugar for two weeks before we can eat them (so no cheating!) and that baklava is worth the trouble of handling the filo dough.

The picture of Mount Rainier would remind me of where my home is (I was a 5^th generation graduate from my home high school). I take pride in coming from a small town, and the values that has instilled on me. A community is a group of people who know each other, grow up together, and help each other out. It also reminds me of the person I am becoming, as hiking is something I do with my fiancé, and is becoming the avenue for a new, different social identity for us as a couple.

It was difficult to think of items that remind me of my culture, partly because it forced me to really think about what I want to keep in touch with the most, but also because so much of what is important to me is based on what I do, not what I have. If I were told I could only take one item, after all, I would be sad, true, but the most important part of my culture is who surrounds me, not what is on my table. This exercise has challenged me to find the parts of my family culture that are most influential in my life, and has also led me to see that family culture is the one I identify with the most, over other identity groups I am a part of. Jobs may come and go, as may friends, but family is a constant.