This spark page was made to answer prompts to deepen my culture exploration. My name is Grace and I am a Junior at Kansas State University majoring in Elementary Education. I have a small 'immediate' family technically but I would consider my whole family 'immediate' in that case then my family is HUGE! I am engaged to my best friend, him and I are close to my sister who is two years younger than me so we do a lot of things together, always there to support one another through good times and bad.
Surface Culture Questions
My family identifies the race of white Caucasian. I lived in both urban and rural community. I lived in a rural community for 21 years and have recently moved to urban, both I like very much. My families story in America is that we have been here for as long as I can remember. My heritage is a lot of different cultures like Polish, Scottish, German, and Native American but I think I connect the most with my Scottish heritage. My immediate family's economic status is upper class but when I was little we were working class. My dad worked hard the many first years of my parents marriage and has succeeded in his hard work and owns his own business now that is why we are upper class for the last ten years. This means in terms of quality of life that I haven't had to worry a lot about stuff financially in my life and that when I graduate college and have a teachers income it will be hard for me to adjust. The heroes that are celebrated in my family are Jesus Christ, Veterans, and people who do good in the world. We are constantly talking about good things that people do in this world to help others.
I wasn't the first to attend college in my family. One set of my grandparents both attended college and my other grandmother attending nursing training. My parents both attended college as well. Family stories that I heard a lot of was how my grandparents worked hard on the farm as children and how far they would have to walk for school or to the grocery store. Basically telling us how well we have it now in our lives than what they had to endure. My family traditions...... Wow there are so many to talk about, my family and I are very close including my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. We spend many weekends during the summer going to our cabin at Fall River lake where we go swimming, campfires, and fireworks. Another tradition is that we are constantly eating together or over at each others houses, it doesn't matter if it's something important we have to tell someone just the mere fact that we want to be close together. We never do anything independently we are always grocery shopping with each other, clothes shopping, doing crafts together, watching TV shows, etc.
Shallow Cultural Beliefs
Sayings that I remember with my grandparents is when we were always asking what time it was and they would say, "It's half past kissing time, time to kiss again." Another saying is that, "Work hard and good things will come." Family stories that are said in my family is when people either make a good choice or bad. We are always trying to protect each other and telling each other our mistakes and accomplishments so that we can help each other out. I love this about my family because we aren't afraid of telling our family our pitfalls. This is a core value in my eyes because we are always trying to help each other. Primary messages about respect from my community is that you have to look at people in the eyes when they are talking to you and disciplining you. You need to call adults Mr., Mrs., or Ms. when acknowledging them. Respect is given when respect is earned, my parents were very strict on rules and we always had to abide by them. I still abide by these rules besides, 'respect is given when respect is earned' because I personally believe we should respect everyone and their own beliefs.
The way I was trained to respond emotionally was that it was okay to cry when you are angry, frustrated, or sad but don't present yourself as a weak individual. I have seen my parents cry many times so it is acceptable to cry in situations. The physical attributes that were praised in my community was when we accomplished something good in sports like earning a medal in Softball or basketball because you did well. My parents always cared about being on time to practices and that I could never quit a sport once I've started it. The scoria attributes that were praised in my community was that you had friends to hangout with but that you also didn't hang out with the 'loser' crowd. I didn't always abide by this 'rule'. The way that I was expected to interact with authority figures was to respect them because they are just trying to do their jobs like we are as students. Authority of teachers and elders were always assumed and NEVER earned. As a child I didn't call adults by their first name it was always Ms., Mrs., or Mr. There isn't shunning or shame in my family only punishment and forgiveness. This is usually if we broke or rule, or got sent to the principals office, back talking an adult, or making a bad life choice like dating someone behind my parents back. I was never allowed to talk back or question adults this is what gets me in trouble today because I am too scared I will get 'in trouble' if I speak my mind to a professor or group project. My sister on the other hand, went against this rule and was punished regularly. My immediate family's relationship with time is that we are always five minutes early. Now with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin that means being about fifteen minutes late.
Deep Cultural Values
My values related to communication is that you should always be clear with your intentions with everyone you meet. "doing school" and self-motivation are hand in hand with my values because I don't have to pay for my college which some people may think that gives me less motivation but it does the opposite because I am spending someone else's money so I feel obligated to do a good job with my school work and attend every class out of respect since they are so generously paying for my college. I believe students should try their best to abide by the rules in the classroom which includes doing what the teacher tells you to do. I believe that students work best together collaboratively rather than individually and that we shouldn't be in our seats that long with younger students rather have them interact with each other. I came to believe these things through my own experience during school and how I have noticed I work better with others than by myself. When I grew up I believed that intelligence was grown by how hard you tried in school. The more you tried the smarter you were and I thought this in grade school because that is what my teachers told me. I didn't get a lot of messages when it came to other ethnic groups because I went to a private Catholic grade school and high school.
Credits:
Created with images by Conal Gallagher - "Flowers"