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.

Trying to decide what three small items I would want to take that would represent my family culture was quite difficult.  I would want to take my family photo album as this item holds so many memories and shows our family story in a way that we can see.  It shows how we celebrate birthdays and holidays and the births of each of my children.  It has pictures of family members that have left this life so that I can always see them and remember the good times we shared.  It also shows us being silly and just being a family!  After that, what else to bring is quite hard, at least for me.  I would probably bring my box of recipes because it holds the recipes to the foods that we enjoy most and makes me think of the happy times baking cookies and being together.  I would also like to bring my box of home movies to watch and remember my children growing up.  Most of all I would just be happy that my children would be with me and we would be able to take our memories with us and find new ways to be a family. 

If I had to give up all but one item, that would be alright, as long as I could keep my photo album.  The other items are just not as important and recipes can be replaced and as many times as they have been used, I could probably rewrite them!  The home movies would be a significant loss, but we still have our memories.  Even if I had to give up everything, knowing that my family is safe and together would mean so much more.  Having to start over in a country that is so drastically different would be very difficult, but together we can accomplish so much more. 

I learned that my family culture isn't something that is easily tangible.  It is in how we are with each other and the traditions we have created together.  It's more about the relationships we have and how we relate to other people.  I also spent time thinking about how difficult it could be to be thrown into another culture that you are so unfamiliar with.  That would be very challenging.  I would hope to have a good support system and be able to make life in this other country the best it could be!