My Family Culture

This week’s assignment has the class imagining that a major catastrophe has struck and my family and I are being evacuated to another country. We are allowed to bring one change of clothes and three small items that are special to us. This was a difficult task for me, although maybe not for the reason one might think. I had difficulty deciding what three things to take because, personally, the fact that my immediate family were going to be with me would be the most comforting.

I think the first item that I would choose to take would be music, I am unsure what form that music would take. If the new country has utilities that would allow me to recharge an MP3 player, then I would take that with me. If the utilities would not be available, then I would take a songbook with me. My family and I all love music of varying types, so the MP3 would be the best option because it would contain all different kinds of music that means something to us. If we couldn’t take the MP3, the songbook we have is a hymnal; this is all the same type of music, but it contains songs that are meaningful to us, so that would be a comfort. Because we don’t like just one type of music, I am sure that we would eventually find music that we like in the new country, but it would be comforting to have familiar music with us because it would help us remember special times in our lives.

The majority of my family also likes to read. Assuming that our new country would not speak our language, I think it would be good to take reading material with me. The book that I would choose to take along would be the Bible. This item would provide comfort while allowing us to engage in an activity that we enjoy.

The third item that I would take would be a photo album. I chose this item based on what I have heard from families that have lost everything in a fire or tornado. The thing that these families mourn losing the most is their photographs. I think the reason for the connection to photos is that they help us relive past events as we look at them. If my family and I were to lose everything else, I would hope to still have photos that represent my family’s history.

Now the assignment gets even more difficult, what would I do if, once we arrived at our destination, I was told that I could only keep one of the items that I had brought with me. As I said before, I believe that my family and would find music that we enjoyed in our new country, so I would be willing to give up the music that I brought with me. With some searching, I might be able to find reading material in English – possibly even a Bible, so I would be willing to give that up as well. The thing that would definitely not be able to be replaced would be the photos, so that is what I would choose to keep. These pictures could be shown to future family members to help them understand where we came from and learn about family who were not able to travel with us to the new country.