Essay On Cultural Lens

In the words of Shannon L. Alder, “Your perspective of life comes from the cage you were held captive in.” In other words, Alder is saying that the way you view the world is based on the way you grew up. Many aspects that impact the way you see the world include: your family, religion, parents, gender, role in the family, etc. A cultural lens is the way you see life and the world around you. It is what you were taught by your parents/guardians as you were growing up, and it is what decides who you will be and what you will do. Family has always been the element that keeps me grounded. As a result, I have always wanted to dig a little deeper because I knew that there was more family out there; I just didn’t know how to do it. With confidence, I decided to take the leap and ask all of my grandparents for information about their grandparents and great-grandparents. Afterwards, I …show more content…
In this sense, my cultural lens is influenced in three ways: my gender, parents, role in the family, and my outlook on education. Obviously, my outlook on the world as a female makes me biased because I think that females are better than males. Notably, I am privileged when I say that I grew up with two parents, and have been fortunate enough to not know that it’s like. Lastly, being the eldest of three gives me a different perspective on life because I grew up a little bit differently than my other siblings. I was disciplined when I was naughty as a child, while my parents were a bit more lenient with my other siblings. This is the reason why I like to keep things clean now that I am older because I was disciplined whenever my room was messy. Additionally, I was taught to believe that education is very important, which makes me unique because a lot of my classmates dread going to school and learning. My appetite for learning is why I quit sports; I just wanted to make academics my biggest goal in life over everything