My Family Culture

In the event that there is a catastrophic event that has devastated my country and I need to evacuate and take refuge to a country that has different culture than mine I would take  these three items that represents my family culture: my birth certificate, family picture, and the Tagalog version of the Holy Bible. My birth certificate has all the information describing who I am and what race and country I belong. It is my identification. Another item I would bring with me is a family picture which was taken during my wedding day. It was taken in the house where I grew up. This item is very important to me because this the only picture I have that has all my family members on it. Lastly, I would bring the Tagalog version of a Holy Bible. The reason for choosing Tagalog version is to make it easier for me to understand because that is my primary language.  The Holy Bible represents my religion which is a very important part of our lives. I was raised as Catholic. I went to a Catholic school from Pre-K to College.  My religion is one of the foundations of my family; it bonds us together and kept our faith stronger especially in times of hardship and troubles.  My parents taught us the importance of believing in God and the power of prayer.

I would feel sad to let go of these items because these are the only thing that represents who I am as a person. Though it will break my heart to see it go, I will console myself in the fact that there are more important things in our lives than these items. Given the opportunity to keep one item with me, I would choose my family picture. My mother died battling breast cancer and my father is now battling Alzheimer’s disease. It is nice to go back and remember them when they were still well and living. All my siblings left my country for a greener pasture and all of us were now separated.  This photo is all I have left of my family. It has all my family members on it which are a reminder of the fond memories we have together and the closeness of my family ties.

Although in reality, I should have chosen my birth certificate because it has my whole identity on it. It is the proof that I exists. It has my name, my place of birth, my parents name, my race, nationality and religion. These are the superficial part of knowing who I am as a person.

Doing this exercise made me think on what is important in life. No matter how I weigh the importance of these items to me, I still end up deciding what is dear to my heart.  Again my culture of giving importance to family first has influenced how I decided which item to keep and what to let go. Most of the time, we make our decisions base on our emotions or feelings but in reality, we have to be practical and reasonable to what is important in the real world. On the other hand, we cannot be all superficial in looking at things because we have to consider some factors that influence a person to do things and understand why they do these things.