My Family Culture

A major catastrophe has hit the U.S. and my immediate family and I are among the survivors. We are being relocated to a new country to take refuge, and I am not able to make any decisions about the evacuation plan or the final destination.  I have no details on the final destination in which I will be placed and I may be forced to stay there permanently. I can only bring one change of clothes and three small personal items.

          Along with my change of clothes, I would also take with me a copy of my Birth certificate, my college diploma and a copy of the photos of my relatives.
          
           I would explain to others the significance of these items by informing them how important it is to be able to prove my identity and my homeland from where I am originally from, regardless of where I am replaced, the proof of the education I received and the remembrance of family members that did not survive or were located in a different place from. All of these items are able to help symbolize my personal identity and family culture.
     
           I would be very devastated if told I could only keep one of the three items upon arrival. It would be a tough decision to make, because all three of those items help to define who I am, where I come from and one of the most important accomplishments that I completed. Being that I would be in a totally new environment, with new people and not having a single person who knows me personally, besides my own family would be very frightening for me and for my family. I would think about the possibilities of being separated from my family that I evacuated with, being given a new identity and losing my own culture and being forced to practice new beliefs. And most importantly, having lost all visual memories of my relatives, whom I may never see again.

This exercise has given me new insights on what it is like to lose everything and be forced to move from an area that you have lived practically all of your life and that is all you know. Throughout the course of completing this exercise, I could not help but to think of those refugees and immigrant that I have actually faced this exact kind of adversity and I became very emotional. It is one thing to see and hear about these kinds of situations on the news, but actually experiencing these are so much different. I pray that America is never put in this kind of situation and that we as a people are able keep our homeland, freedom and rights and to never have to be forced to give up who we are.