Personal Narrative: Double Heritage

My grandmother Lynne Murphy is who I chose to interview for my heritage project. This summer at a family birthday party I was speaking short phrases in Spanish while joking around with my dad. My grandmother, sitting beside us, joined in the conversation and starting speaking fluent Spanish. I had no idea she could speak Spanish, so I asked her, “How can you speak Spanish?” Before answering my question she laughed. She went on to tell me that she lived in South America for many years as a teenager. I didn’t have the chance to learn anymore about her childhood until this project was assigned. When I learned we were to focus on a family member’s experience growing up, I immediately thought about my grandmother and the interesting life she seemed

The way I see it humans are just biotic machines where people from the first SECOND we are born to expect us to be used to be in their likeness or their standard of code. Luckily, due to a creation of identity and personality, people often never reach that likeness and become different. Cultural identity impacts us for our interests can make a person grow and gain traits. My cultural identity is made up by many factors, Mx-Bones and my mom impacted my life and guided me to be an artist and an aspiring scientist of some sort that is not confirmative and very curious.

The front range of Colorado has a large diversity of cultural populations represented. Therefore, as a professional counselor it is my responsibility to educate myself on the cultures I am likely to be working with. Since there is such a diverse population there is no way I am going to know everything about everyone’s culture. Although, I do know the cultures of the majority populations that frequent the agency I am currently working. Since I am working with populations I would be aware of the societal issues they are facing and the oppression they have been and are up against. Therefore, this allows me to immerse myself into their culture, learning and seeing firsthand the oppression and prejudices they face in the community in which we

I grew up in a catholic conservative family, but that did not define me. My mom’s heritage had a huge impact in our household. She is Hispanic and Italian and our life revolved around food and family. We would help my mom cook as we danced around to Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, and Celia Cruz. My dad worked a lot of the time, but when he was home we played sports outside and watched movies with him. Every Friday night was family movie night, which my brothers and I looked forward too.

Sitting on the plane alone, I wondered what the next three weeks would bring. The light hum of the plane’s engines seemed to go on forever and the dry stale air began to scratch the inside of my throat. My destination was The Netherlands, where the entirety of my family lives. Throughout my youth seeing my family was a rare occasion, once a year if we were lucky, but after my parents divorced, we stopped going altogether. It had been over eight years since I had last visited them and because of the many years of separation, I felt uneasy about it all. Throughout the flight I couldn’t help but to think to myself several questions like: What I might be able to learn and experience from these next three weeks? How I would feel when I would first arrive? And how different everything would be. Having been there only a

For most of my life growing up, I was extremely culturally unaware of even my own heritage. In recent years however, my life experiences have instructed me to gain a fonder appreciation of my own family’s culture and others around it. Specifically, the acknowledgement of my own cultural background and time spent as an emergency medical technician in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) have given me unique viewpoints to appreciate human culture on a grander scale.

How does your heritage affect you today? My English heritage doesn’t effect me, but I would like to try some traditions.Those things I would like to try is traditional foods, sports known in England, and religious holidays.

One particular negative experience that relates to my cultural heritage happened about a year ago, when my school took us on a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure. Since I went to an Orthodox Jewish school we were required to wear our school uniform which consisted of a very long and modest skirt and our school shirt. As my friends and I were walking around six flags, a random girl yelled out to us, “Hey, Love your skirts!!! Where did you get them from?” To anybody else this would be a compliment, however, her expression showed otherwise. She said it in such a sarcastic way which made us realize that she was actually mocking us. Once my friends and I heard this, we immediately got offended that she was making fun of our Jewish heritage!

The lives I would touch for my legacy would be my family and friends because those are the people that care about me and what I do. That they would help me out with anything I need. My major accomplishment would be a pro soccer player and go to Rutgers College. The other accomplishment in my life would be to get very good grades in school to get a good education.

What is culture? According to Dr. Dennis O’Neil from the Behavioral Sciences Department at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA, “ culture is the full range of learned human behavior” and includes morals, traditions, and beliefs (1). First morals could be opinions rather than facts. Opinions on what is right and wrong, L.G.B.T ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender), and abortion. Many people have different perspectives on morals. Not everyone agrees with others peoples opinion on these certain perspectives. Next, every culture has some sort of tradition. In America, a huge celebration would be the Super Bowl. Families and friends gather together to watch the largest football game of the year, and to barbecue. Lastly many people

When I think of the word legacy I think of how I will be remember and what I will leave behind for generations to come. I think of people like Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi, whose impact changes the lives of many and the world as it was known during that time. I don’t think that my impact will be received on such a big scale like Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and many other but hopefully I will be able to touch the people who were close to me during my lifetime.

I don’t really know much about my identity through my heritage. However, my ‘identity’ has been found through my family’s and I’s moral beliefs and teachings. I couldn’t tell you much about before I was born, but I can say right now, I belong to people who accept me for me. Everything I am. Where I come from and who I’m going to be is because of the people I’ve chosen to immerse myself around. A quote by a man named Francis Conroy says it best, “As you age naturally, your family shows more and more on your face.” I hope this is true for me when I’m older. The values and traditions that I’ve always been around is something I am extremely proud of. The quote later goes on to say, “If you deny that, you deny your heritage.” No matter how many times I leave the family nest or allow myself to figure

My Legacy will be remembered as good student but not the greatest behavior. Most of my legacy will be remembered with the teachers I always had a good thing with the teachers. The teachers always liked me because I did my work and payed attention sometimes.It wil also will be with the students I left behind a good path with the teachers. The life that I touched the most would be Mrs. Codispoti she was my favorite teacher last year and we made a big impact on each other's life.

Think of what you would think of on your final day of life. Sitting in your hospital bed,

As a second generation Chinese-Vietnamese American, I often found it difficult to identify myself as American or Chinese. I felt as if I did not entirely belong in one culture or the other as my peers often bullied me for being “too Asian” if I brought lunch from home or wore ethnic clothing. Despite social exclusion, I maintained my cultural identities because it defined myself and my cultural origins. I realized the importance of diversity in a field like healthcare when I witness non-English Vietnamese speakers in the hospital having difficulty forming coherent questions regarding their needs and requests.