Cultural Identity

I’m sure many have shared stories of their high school experiences and can relate when I say those four years have taught me many lessons. During this time, I’d come face to face with the fraudulent friendships, temporary romances, and other high school dramas that my parents once warned me about—those of which I simply brushed off as myths. It wasn’t the 90’s anymore— times have changed and people are different—or at least, that’s what I thought.

Though it does not come up in everyday thought, cultural identity is an idea that all humans possess. Abridged, cultural identity can be simply explained as the sharing of a similar culture by people of various ethnicities. However, cultural identity is more complex than that, defined by an individual’s values, beliefs, and ideas of moral behavior influenced by their culture. Furthermore, cultural identity is ever changing from individual to individual. This means that although two individuals may be of the same ethnicity, differences in circumstances may cause variations between the individuals’ personal beliefs. As a result of interracial interactions, multiculturalism has grown during the twenty-first century.

There was absolutely nothing that could set me apart from the sea of designer purses, overly expensive shoes, and cherry flavored lip glosses. In high school, it seems if you weren’t marginalized into a group or follow the status quo you were seen as the misfit. One day, I experienced an epiphany in the back of my Government class, I wasn’t content with the illusion of the perfect teen. I had acceptable grades, I was well liked by most of my student body; however, I couldn’t come to the terms that I neglected what really mattered to me. At home my family would describe me with words such as: “eclectic, unique and remarkable.”, but at school I conformed into a person with a lackluster personality. I reckon that college is a place where each student is not the same and has the ability to be their true selves without being judged. This being, another reason why I respect your institution on the importance of accepting different cultures and

Cultural Identity is “The definition of groups or individuals (by themselves or others) in terms of cultural or subcultural categories (including ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, and gender)” (Oxford Reference). Everyone has cultural identity even though some are unaware of theirs because their habits and traditions might be seen as normal to the person and they might not make the connection that it is a cultural tradition or connected to their cultural identity. Some people are very aware of their cultural identity and have conflict within their identity because the cultures may not coincide. Frida Kahlo’s Self Portrait: On the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States and Pat Mora’s “Legal Alien” both show cultural conflict through symbolism, conflict, and purpose.

Walking into school on my first day of high school, I felt out of place. My face covered in acne, my teeth covered in braces, and the callicks in my hair stuck up through the abnormally thick layer of hair gel that coated them. My middle school social anxiety still ruled over me as I could barely speak with any member of the opposite sex. Yet, I still had an odd confidence about me. I had always been one of the best students in my class, even without ever studying for a test. I viewed high school as a slight uptick from the curriculum I had easily passed in middle school. I was wrong. High school exists as a microcosm of society, in which I originally failed to acclimate myself to the challenges posed to me in a setting of increased

Does someone's cultural identity affect how they look at the world an other people? Cultural identity affects how someone looks at the world and how they look at others. The culture that someone creates for themselves determines how they look at the world and someone. Your childhood, lessons you learn throughout your life, and your cultural heritage all effect your culture and how you look at people and the world. There is also some people that are not affected by their culture only affected by their childhood and lessons that they grew up with in other words there not affected by their parent's culture heritage their affected by their culture they made for themselves. Culture affects everyone and the extent of the effect determines how

A person’s culture has a great influence on his or her self-identity and behavior. Culture encompasses many aspects, and is defined by Juang and Matsumoto (2011) as a, “unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life” (p. 15). As discussed in lecture, different dimensions of culture are identified by Geert Hofstede and different values of culture are identified by Shalom Schwartz (K. Whitten, personal communication, January 14, 2016). The level of emphasis placed on these dimensions and values result in the expression of a unique culture. I interviewed

In September, I strode through the front doors of a building containing 1400 students, none of whom I had ever met. Regardless of my initial hesitance, my first week went well enough, a blur of orange lockers, events, classrooms, names, and faces. What do you think of when you hear “new kid”? Are they shrewd or frivolous? A fish out of water, or a natural born insider? As the weeks passed, I asked myself the same questions, recognizing the opportunity to remake myself. However, one year later, I have not changed anything fundamental about my personality, except that, out of necessity, I am now more

Individuality is a facade and conformity is the norm. A person who is “different” is considered an outcast, undeserving of the pleasant and jocular memories associated with high school, or as some adolescents refer to it, “the best four years of their lives.” Such statements, filled with glittering generalities and hopeful testimonies, run completely opposite to my personal experiences. Although I have learned positive lessons, the overwhelming perusal and close examination of self I have had to face has become an outstanding negative consequence of high school. These repercussions primarily stem from academic performance, self-image, and overall social stratification.

As a high school student struggling to cope with the demands and commitments that life sets on me, it is often easy to lose the essence of “the me.” With the pressure of school, family and friends, and extracurriculars, I often neglect my hobbies, interests, and getting to know “the me.” Looking back at freshman year, my life was a cityscape, active and vibrant. I was just another typical high school student conquering life’s challenges. With pride, I reached certain goals that I believed made me the “perfect” student: Red Cross: check, debate team: check, action team: check, peer transitions: check, Big Brother Big Sister: check, honor societies: check. Was I forgetting anything? Who needs friends, downtime, sleep and food? It turns out that

Cultural identity is something that is being seen all over the world. It is essentially a person's identity belonging to a certain group. Examples of these groups could be a religion, nationality, ethnicity, or social class. Cultural identity has the power to shape someone's way of life in the way that it can cause someone to adopt another person's cultural identity. It can also help motivate a person's decisions in life. especially if that person's decision matches up with  the person's cultural identity. Lastly, cultural identity works as a catalyst to what a person will do in his or her life, whether it is a person's profession, sexual orientation, and even lifestyle, it will have a significant impact on a person's future in society.

Once you get to high school, we’re all lost. You’re lucky if you know what you’re doing the next weekend. You’ve created a mask that you uphold in your social and home life, but it all comes off once you’re alone in your room. Like it never existed. Of course they’ll be times when you get close to showing your friends who you really are, but it wouldn’t matter if you did. At this point they’re too busy worrying if theirs’ came off too, and it’s a disaster because we’re all too concerned with ourselves to even think about each other.

Time and time again we see movies, plays, books, graphic novels, and many more mediums portraying the ‘average’ life of a high schooler. Sometimes these media adaptions hit the nail on the head but most of them turn out to be just another cliche in the genre. Most people often focus on high school and its inhabitants as a single organism when in reality it’s a complex hierarchy of ever-evolving individuals. To an outsider high school is no more complex than a simple arithmetic problem like one plus one. But from an insider 's point of view one plus one suddenly expands to include several polynomials, introducing new variables that add layers to the rapidly expanding equation. One of the lesser explored areas of high school is its social order. At the base of the pyramid we have the Freshmen, fondly called the ‘babies’ of the school, that are always eager to please. Then there are the Sophomores who still retain their first-year enthusiasm with an underlying layer of experience. Nearing the top are the Juniors that have already established the foundation of their personal identity and carry a wide array of knowledge. Then, sitting on the throne, are the Seniors who have an uncanny habit of bending the rules and have the nonchalance personality of a cat that only high school veterans can achieve. It’s simple for adults and even children to say that freshmen and seniors are virtually the same thing. However, if one looks underneath the

Cultural Identity is the aspects of someone’s life with self-conception of belonging to different groups. Meaning that we all are apart of different cultures, which plays a role in our everyday life. The groups I feel belonged to are sports, fashion and food.

Culture is not just an ethnicity, it's also an identity. Culture has a great effect on our way of living, priorities, and views on everyone. For example, someone who lives in a poor town with kids has to worry about what they are going to eat that day, how much money they are making, and worry about they are going to keep their kids from starving. That person could care less about a random person across the street, their main focus is on them and their kids. On the other hand, someone who grew up in the U.S that is very financially stable, doesn’t have to worry about money. They might have to worry about other things like how they will save up for a car or another expensive material object.