My Family Interview Essay

Fortunately, I grew up in a household where both of my parents were very present in my life. Therefor, I did not even consider interviewing my dad. Although he was born and raised in Ireland, I thought I had already informally interviewed my father throughout life. I have heard the stories of his childhood and about the weird traditions. But when I sat down and actually talked about what it was like to come from Ireland to America I realized that there was a lot that I had yet to learn. First, I asked him about culture shock. (Martin, Nakayama. P. 125) “No, no culture shock. I mean I knew where I was going and I have seen America on television. There is a pretty big Irish community in New York, too. Of course it was a lot bigger and I thought …show more content…
One thing I am sure of is that my way of deciding to be nonreligious was a much different process than others. My father went to private, religious, boarding schools his whole life. As well as attending church regularly and multiple times week. If I ever had a question about religion, he was the man to go to. He was an expert in my eyes. That is why it in intriguing that he was also the person to convince me to not believe in religion. When I asked about him breaking away from religion and his religious conflicts when moving to America he simply replied with “I always kind of thought it bull shit. More people just agreed with me here.” (Martin, Nakayama. P. …show more content…
This is America! We have tons of fun and do not think things through enough. But the reason this was my favorite thing he said in the interview was because I eventually decided to agree with him. America is a very individualistic culture so we put ourselves first. This is not necessarily a negative thing but it takes away from enjoying life with others more often. The typical American dream is to get an education, get a good job, buy a house, get married, and have a kid or two. The typical Irish dream is “to be able to go out for a beer on Saturday and not be too hungover for church on Sunday” as my father puts it. The simple things in life matter more in my dad’s culture. At the beginning of this interview I was uncertain if I would learn anything new. What started out as another normal conversation with my dad ended up being a revelation and discovery of a new part of my identity. Obviously I knew that my father and I grew up in different countries and in very different ways, but I never really considered us having abstract cultures. He raised me, along with my American mother, but wouldn’t we have the same if not similar