Personal Narrative: Not Content With My Heritage

My legacy began when my family taught me to read. My mom and grandma took turns teaching me different letters and sounds out of an early reader. By the time I reached kindergarten, I read well enough to strengthen my skills on my own. My favorite author from kindergarten was Eric Carle. I brought home Brown Bear Brown Bear so many times that my mother told me I was not allowed to read it again.

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

Growing up with two different Heritages is like growing up in two different worlds, it was tough growing up being Native and Hispanic I would either get made fun of because I was Native or I was made fun of for being Hispanic. I guess you can say that I have somewhat of a different life, living with any Hispanic family but considering myself more Native, because just at home i just speak spanish, and eat amazing food made by my mother who isn’t even Hispanic who’s just Native American who didn’t consider herself Native American because she herself lived with my grandmother or she lived with a family friend who was Hispanic and showed her things about a culture that she didn’t know anything about.

Many people have left legacies from when they were alive. Some are good, and some are bad. Those people may not agree with what they have left behind, and some may be perfectly okay with theirs. For me, I would like to leave behind a legacy that shows my family that I was a good person. I would want them to know that I had good intentions for my life and that I wanted to do good for myself and others. In this essay, I will explain what I would like my legacy to be like.

My mom is fully Native American and my father is fully African American. However, if you look at me you would most likely just assume that I was black and nothing else. When I was growing up I felt like an outsider because I lived in a white neighborhood and always went to predominately white schools. In addition, I would often get made fun of because of my ethnic name. I also feel like somewhat of an outsider at my internship because I’m the only African American there. However, constantly being the only African American in many situations has taught me a lot about other ethnicities, nationalities, and cultures other than my

Whether it was my persistent requests for my mother dreadlock my hair at the age of 8, or the immediate connection I had to the dancehall mixes played in the backgrounds of family gatherings, I was very proud of the person that my native land was bound to shape me into. But this held opposite to those of the “outside world”. Soon, I became one of the very few minorities in my classroom, with those of fairer skin and origins rooted in European countries becoming the majority. At the sight of them, the thought “am I truly as beautiful as my mother told me I am” popped into my mind, with the image that I had to carry being seen as substantially different compared to those who now surrounded me. My youth soon persisted of me being completely aware of how “different” I truly was, however, this awareness only consisted of a [blank] percentage of negative feelings. But then, age 11 hit. The year I was pushed to experience a much larger scope of the world than elementary school had allowed me: a 6th grade academy. Sure, the neighborhood and the friends that I had known prior were still present, the new setting and set of people that this school added into my life proved to have its lasting

In a previous class based on diversity I remember reading about Susie Guillory Phipps and her astonishment to learn being classified as black on her birth certificate when she had spent her entire life believing that she was merely a caucasian woman. I can understand her dismay and learning new and valuable information about herself but what I can not fathom is why she wanted so desperately to change it. What would have been wrong with knowing you had some African American lineage? I then remember that those were different times and I’m sure Susie was raised to think and act a certain way about others who she deemed unlike her.

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

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!

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

Thus I don’t just live in two cultures, but in between. I’m different in both cultures, unable to perfectly fit in either of them. So much effort is put into my academics that people perceive me as a “nerd” in the Western world, while there’s not enough effort or intelligence for the Eastern. In the Eastern, my skin is too dark and exposing too much skin isn’t appropriate and the Western, my style is too conservative. Overall, I’ve been criticized for being too “Americanized” or too “Asianized”. Forced to conform in order to be accepted by each world separately, I was living two different lives. As time went by, I realized it wasn’t necessary to show only half of myself and hide the other half to each world. It was okay that everyone couldn’t be pleased and I accepted the fact that I’m a product of two beautiful cultures.

I would contribute to diversity on the NC State campus because I identify as a lesbian and have been out to my community for many years now due to the love and support I have received from my hometown of Wilmington, NC. I try to give back to this wonderful community in whatever way I can, I attend meetings at our local Gay Straight Alliance and Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. I have also scheduled many events that are LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) inclusive such as a Pride Prom and a transgender visibility Potluck in light of the horrors of House Bill 2. I also consider myself to be a feminist, someone who believes in the equal rights of all genders and I do a lot in the sense of advocacy for gender equality.

My family history has two distinct sides in the time since World War 2, my mother’s side hails from the south, primarily Arkansas while my father’s family lives in the north, in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Since the Second World War, the world has undergone some radical changes and has gone through very well defined eras. The fifties saw the rebuilding efforts begin in several war torn countries. In the sixties rapid growth in both economics and population had everyone riding high. The seventies saw a movement in which people preached that people needed to be more down to earth and more in tune with nature. The eighties saw rising crisis across the globe. The nineties saw the internet boom and the bust of the Soviet Union. The turn of the millennia saw a continued fight for freedom from oppression and the attempt to improve the lives of those in conflict zones. In all this, my family saw moments in history, and at certain points, were even involved in history.

I hate tradition because you have to follow rule, there some rule that can’t be broken. Like for guy we have to went when we turn 18 to get a drive licences, and i see 16 with their drive licences. When i was 16 i was ready to drive, but mine parents won’t let me even drive.