In today’s world it’s truly become hard to see any real culture here in America. Many people have their beliefs intact but have no idea where the beliefs themselves came from. So we live our lives creating new traditions instead of keeping those which should be near and dear to us alive.
Ever wake up and feel like you don’t really know who you are? I do all the time, one thing that keeps me in a sense of who I am would have to be my heritage. Our heritage is one of the things that defines us, gives us some sort of rational meaning of who we are, and even plays into our own moralistic Values. Without it most would be lost as to why they uphold a certain family tradition or even why they practice a certain religion. I for one am of German and Scottish decent, and my family is not one of those that hold traditions in high sense of priority, but I’ve always been curious as to why we uphold the ones we do. Things such as calling my grandfather Opa, or my grandmother Oma, or why we always go to church the night before Christmas, are a few little things that were meaningless to me as a child. Now knowing a little more about where our family came from gives me a sense of belonging and even the importance of keeping what some might consider silly traditions alive. My sense of heritage and tradition is not as strong as some though. Take for example someone growing up in a house were a different language is the predominant form of communication. Can you imagine the burden it would be when you walk out in society and have no way to communicate with the general population unless you conform to the so called norm? I mean I for one am frustrated when I walk into a restaurant and try to place an order, but the person taking the order can’t understand what I’m saying. I can only imagine how that person feels on the receiving end, how frustrated they must feel about having to learn a second language, especially when it could mean their lively hood. All too much these days we...