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...

If a major catastrophe had almost completely devastated the infrastructure of the United States and me and my immediate family had to evacuate I would not be worried about taking anything with me, all I would need is my family. In my family, family is crucial. Things are just that things, they really don't mean anything. 

I would explain to others that within my family culture that our families are what is essential to us not things. It is vital to spend and celebrate life together, the little and the big moments. What I hope to pass down to my children is what my parents passed down to me,  that your family will always be there for you and they are important. That things are just things and there will be things in life that we value and treasure but nothing should be more important than family. 

An insight that I gained about my self and my family culture is that, I believe sadly, not all families feel this way. Many people joke that my family is intimidating at first. We are a loud, loving, crazy family. We fight but we always forgive. We celebrate the good and help pick up the pieces when it is bad. I realized with this assignment that who cares what I could bring or couldn't bring with me as long as my family was together. 

Brandie 

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