preview

The Importance Of Cultural Identity

Decent Essays

Cultural identity can be difficult for people to determine because it is often invisible until you are introduced to a culture different from your own. It also has numerous meanings to different people around the world. Your cultural identity does not necessarily mean your heritage or where your family comes from, it can mean what you believe in, what your values are or how you treat people. Therefore, it can even mean how you view the world. Just like many other young people, I have struggled with identifying my own cultural identity.
From a young age, I was told that I was Irish, Scottish and Welsh because that is where my ancestors came from. I did not think that much about it at the time and I just went with it, but now that I am learning more about what cultural identity is and what it means to me, I feel like describing me in three words is not describing me at all. Yes, my ancestors are from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but there is so much more to me than that. People often assume that I am Irish based on my fair skin, freckles and the slight red tint to my hair. However, not everybody knows l that I am passionate about photography, baking and anything to do with sports. I have started to feel like I am losing my sense of cultural identity by living so far away from my Irish extended family.
Although I do not have a strong sense of cultural identity, my relatives do. Many of my relatives live in Indiana and identify strongly as Irish-Catholic. My dad was the first person in the family to move across the country to California and abandon many of his parents cultural traditions and ideas. This has changed me because I feel as if my cultural identity of being a traditional Irish-Catholic has disappeared. My family does not go to church each Sunday, we are not as conservative and we do not meet up with our relatives that often since we live so far away. As I have gotten older, I have realized that I am losing part of my cultural identity by separating from these ideals and customs. I feel like many people around me have a strong sense of cultural identity, while I am struggling to have a strong sense of belonging to a specific culture.
While I feel as if I do not belong to a specific culture, I do know

Get Access