Family Culture.

I have to let you all know, culture/traditions is a hard one for me. I'm still trying to figure out what I want and things I want to change about my own culture. If y'all have any good insights from your own person culture, let me know!

Culture. Is it just where we live that perpetuate our culture? I think that plays a large part of it; however, it is also up to our parents. In class this week we discussed a case study that discussed ten undocumented Hispanic families that have traveled from Mexico and came to America. It discussed their struggles, experiences, their culture in Mexico, but also their culture in America. The study is called The Cost of Getting Ahead, from Smith, et al. which was extremely helpful for me to understand some of things that many of my friends and acquaintances have experienced and continue to experience. In this study the parents wanted to get ahead, for their children. It wasn’t easy, not even a little. It altered their family structure and it changed who they were. However, in class we have a few students who shared their stories and how one or both of their parents traveled to America to get ahead either as a young child or as an adult. It was amazing to hear those stories and how as now adults they feel they owe it to their parents to get the best education and become the best they can be.  

I don’t have those same experiences as I was born in the United States but I can share a little bit about my culture. I grew up in a culture where family didn’t matter. You fend for yourself and hope for the best. I grew up with the culture that people don’t help others, you don’t ask for help, and we make due with what you got. It’s a hard life to live, it’s hard not feeling loved, and it’s hard to fend for yourself when you are a young child. I have a firm belief that cultures can change. When I was 15, I moved into a new home, I moved in with my aunt and uncle and things were different. I learned what it was like to feel loved, to have a roof over my head, I learned that it’s okay to be loved. Your family, those who place within your life, help shape your culture because have patterns, roles, and each other. Not all are good, but not all are bad. It’s up to you to fight against the odds if you don’t like something to change it.

Eight years later I have still continued to adjust the culture that I want. It isn’t easy, not even close, but I’m so grateful for the opportunities that I have gone through to help me want to change. Coming from me late teen years I learned the importance of family and of love. I want to make sure that I keep those two things in my culture of my house. That when the time comes for me to have children, they will know and feel they are loved and that they have a support system.

It’s never easy to break traditions, it’s actually quite hard because we always fall back into what is familiar. There are times when I’ll fall back into patterns and into the culture of when I was younger and living with my mother, that’s not a culture that I like. It takes me a while to get back to what I now call familiar.

I guess what it all comes down to is what do we want for ourselves and our future. I want a world full of love, consistency, dependability, and family. As I prepare to start my own family, I want happiness through all the trials, heartaches, disagreements, happy moments. I want to raise my family in a culture within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where they know that no matter what they have a Father in Heaven who loves them and that everything is going to be okay.

What are some of the traditions or aspects of YOUR culture that you would want to adjust or get rid of completely?