Personal Narrative: Maine To Maryland

Day 2: How does your culture contribute to the way that you interact with your social world? Culture is one of the primary reasons we act the way we do. There are many types of cultures like professional, national, religious, family, and educational. Your family culture is the number one type of culture that affects you in your adult life. It shapes the foods you enjoy, the activities you like to participate in, and specific belief systems you take part in. Additionally,

I come from the small town of Caribou, Maine. “Why so far north?” You might ask. Well, my father took a job as meteorologist for NOAA in Caribou following his retirement from the Air Force after 20 years of service. I moved to Maine in August of 2008, exactly 9 years ago; however, Maine is the 4th location I’ve lived in after Virginia (my birthplace), Alabama, and North Carolina.

Just recently, I found out I was moving to another state. Knowing I have to leave everything behind was awful. I was halfway through eighth grade, starting the second semester, and I was doing great. My grades were all A’s and I was happy there with all my friends, Amber, Marianna, and Makayla. Our house was decent, my sister and I both had our own rooms anything I would ever wish for. My dad had been promoted to another job, where he was going to get paid more than what he was currently earning. It was an amazing opportunity for my family. I was glad for my dad, but I still felt bad for myself.

Culture influences our way of life and our identity is who we are as unique individuals. That is to say a connection between the two is evident; culture is the foundation of identity. As we mature into adulthood, our life experiences evolve to form our true self.

Culture incorporates many different aspects of life such as religion, food, language, ethnicity, and many more. All of these aspects influence the way a person lives and acts. Although culture provides a positive influence by bestowing self worth, it could also negatively affect someone’s life. Culture affects a person in many ways by creating internal and external conflict, which influences the way others view them and therefore affects their actions and how they feel about themselves.

Culture is a large part of every person’s life, it is what makes each person unique. Within culture there are many aspects such as food, music, clothing, tradition, and many more. Since culture makes up such a large part of our day to day lives, it is almost always responsible shaping and informing our view on the world.

Going on the end of the year service trip to Denver really opened my eyes to how many people are affected by homelessness. Homelessness can have many causes and can happen to anyone. In our societal system today once someone has reached poverty and become homeless it is very hard to recover from this cycle of poverty.

Its opened my eyes, and broken many stereotypes I had about homeless people. Jeannette stated she was embarrassed, and didn't know what to say when people asked about her parents. Jeanette’s mom said, just to tell the truth. Reading about this broke arguably the biggest stereotype about homeless people for me. That some people chose to be homeless. Most people are homeless because they have no family, no money to support themselves, or are foreigners, who can't find a job. But reading this shattered my beliefs of the subject of homelessness

I moved to Connecticut in the September of 2008 because my Dad had a job transfer. This was around the time that I started the second grade. I was introduced to so many people and they were all so nice to me. Six years later, I made countless friends and started to feel like Connecticut was where I wanted to stay forever. But in December of 2014, my Dad got a phone call from a company in South Jersey and they wanted him to work for them. At first, he worked 3 days in Camden, and the rest of the week in Connecticut. That was difficult though because we did not get to see him as often as we wanted to. My parents then sat my brother and I down and asked us if we wanted to move to South Jersey. I did not know what to think. After six years, I loved living in Connecticut and I wanted to stay there. They told us that it would be a lot easier to move down to Jersey instead of my dad traveling every week. My brother and I both agreed that this is what we are going to have to do. I can still remember that day though. It seemed liked the world was going to a scorching end. At least my world was. I started to tell my friends that

My change is about when I moved to Washington from Indiana. When my real dad dropped use off at our drop off spot. We want to a store, and got a drink. After that we started to drive away, I was so many emotions. The reasons for these emotions because I was moving closer to my family, I was losing my friends.My step-dad as driving the u hale and my mom was in the truck with me, my brothers, and my grandma was in the u hale with my step-dad. We also had a two cat's in cages and a turtle which was in a small cage with a tiny bit of water. We stopped at a lot of rest stops at first. I heard my mom say "we need gas" or " call your dad and tell him to stop there."

My family and I felt exhausted after driving three days across the country from Albuquerque, New Mexico to California, Maryland.  We were about a half hour from our hotel when the skies turned dark and it started to rain. The raindrops hit the road so hard I thought the road would crack open and swallow our car.  There was lightning all around us and my younger sister Skyler and I thought we would be struck through the glass. We both were so scared we started crying.  I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest and I screamed: "we are going to die". I learned that day that the rubber on the tires would ground the car and no way could we be hit by lightning. Usually when a parent tells you in ten minutes it’s more like 20-30 minutes

When I was only four years old, my life changed forever. It was the year I moved to North Carolina. My dad’s friend got him a job opportunity that he simply couldn’t give up. So, he quit his job and found a nice rental house to live in. I had moved before but I don’t remember. I moved from Indiana to North Carolina with my brother my cat and my parents. When I moved to North Carolina, I was aware of what was happening, but I never realized how different everything would be. The house we moved into we only lived in for a year, but it was a pretty hectic year.

The only state I have ever known as home is North Carolina. I was born and raised in Charlotte and the only time I have ever moved away was last year to start a new chapter of my life as a college student. Growing up in Charlotte has had such an impact on what I plan to do with my future. As a young child I always thought of Charlotte as the next best thing to New York City. I shortly realized after visiting that was not quite the case. New York City introduced me to a new world of opportunity.

I am on the ship to the Connecticut Colony, Wethersfield. After days at sea and being seasick, I was eager to see land. I hear someone whisper behind me “There is Connecticut Colony.” I looked around and to my surprise; it was Nathaniel Eaton, a small boy who had barely spoken to me. I didn’t think he noticed me, but obviously I was wrong. Nathaniel is the captain’s son. His mother calls him Nat. Our first stop was Saybrook. I watched as people got off the ship and decided to do a bit of wandering. I stayed close to hear the call for boarding. After a short break we set out again for Wethersfield, my final destination. I felt restless, but excited to meet my Aunt Rachel for the first time. Our letters kept us connected, but seeing her face to face and meeting my family made me happy.

Sometimes I question if culture changes who you are. I try to pull up memories of the decisions I make, are they affected by my culture? Here is the response I came up with: Culture sporadically informs how an individual sees the world because, even being from completely different places and raised in contrasting households, people could still have similar views based on what they think of others and not how you are constructed with your culture, however, sometimes affects your perspective in certain occasions in circumstances where you wouldn’t face a community the same if you weren’t from the culture you were built in. This idea is supported by the personal essay by Bharati Mukherjee, Two Ways to Belong in America, the essay by Robert Lake, An Indians Father Plea, and also personal experience.