How the Northwest Shaped Me As of this point in my life I think I’m too far down the line of mixed cultures and beliefs that I’ll never truly know what I am or ever really will be. But if there is one thing that I know has shaped me in my life in the way of values is the Northwest. There’s no other place like here, green trees, brown dirt and bark, white snow, blue oceans, ridgid mountain tops, and the mix of cultures a place like here brings. I have native friends, hispanic friends, swedish friends, italian friends, etc… But this one place is what unites us. The question never comes up, “What culture do you come from?” “You must have blank in you” because in a country with a mostly white population you aren’t looked at as unique, but I
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The closest thing I’ve seen is my mom’s dad having a flag of the Phelps family crest of Germany, along with my dad’s dad having a Moran’s Family Pub T-Shirt at a restaurant he ate at and that’s all I really come to know up until 8th grade before culture fair. So when it came time to ask my parents questions about what we are it became blurry at my my dad’s side because he was adopted, and up until 1996, he didn’t know what he was or any of that until he met his real dad. They kept in contact and turned out he lived in Sedro Woolley, so we’d always go see him when I was a kid. I figured, come culture fair time I’d interview him. What I found out was that he has a swedish heritage and I still remember what he told me when I asked if he still holds onto those beliefs. He said, “No, when my parents came to America from Sweden they started new ideals, values, and beliefs. You should do the same and not hang onto the past.” That has stuck with me ever since he said that. As I got older, mostly this year and last year, I started to notice my surroundings more, especially when I got my driver's license and I went on drives and started to go up to the mountains, down to Seattle, over onto the San Juans, up to Canada with my dad, and even weekend drives that really opened my eyes to where I live and when it came time to do these essays for English and U.S. History instead of sit here and …show more content…
But instead it’s about what I like to think about myself and what I am. Like I said before my family has never been one to hang onto our culture or what we really are, we are more of a family that likes to create our own things, or own values and traditions. Like my dad’s biological father said “When my parents came to America from Sweden they started new ideals, values, and beliefs. You should do the same and not hang onto the past.” In ways it might offend some people, but that sort of thinking can really leave it up to you to create what you want, what traditions you want to start. That’s why now I just like to tell people that I have Swedish in me because that’s all I know, but what I really like to think is that I’m from the Northwest and it’s a place that defines
The closest thing I’ve seen is my mom’s dad having a flag of the Phelps family crest of Germany, along with my dad’s dad having a Moran’s Family Pub T-Shirt at a restaurant he ate at and that’s all I really come to know up until 8th grade before culture fair. So when it came time to ask my parents questions about what we are it became blurry at my my dad’s side because he was adopted, and up until 1996, he didn’t know what he was or any of that until he met his real dad. They kept in contact and turned out he lived in Sedro Woolley, so we’d always go see him when I was a kid. I figured, come culture fair time I’d interview him. What I found out was that he has a swedish heritage and I still remember what he told me when I asked if he still holds onto those beliefs. He said, “No, when my parents came to America from Sweden they started new ideals, values, and beliefs. You should do the same and not hang onto the past.” That has stuck with me ever since he said that. As I got older, mostly this year and last year, I started to notice my surroundings more, especially when I got my driver's license and I went on drives and started to go up to the mountains, down to Seattle, over onto the San Juans, up to Canada with my dad, and even weekend drives that really opened my eyes to where I live and when it came time to do these essays for English and U.S. History instead of sit here and …show more content…
But instead it’s about what I like to think about myself and what I am. Like I said before my family has never been one to hang onto our culture or what we really are, we are more of a family that likes to create our own things, or own values and traditions. Like my dad’s biological father said “When my parents came to America from Sweden they started new ideals, values, and beliefs. You should do the same and not hang onto the past.” In ways it might offend some people, but that sort of thinking can really leave it up to you to create what you want, what traditions you want to start. That’s why now I just like to tell people that I have Swedish in me because that’s all I know, but what I really like to think is that I’m from the Northwest and it’s a place that defines