I Need To Know Where I Came From To Know Where I Am Going Essay example

Growing up I learned the stories of my ancestors and how all of them were immigrants. I felt a need to learn their stories because I thought â€Å"I need to know where I came from to know where I am going†. I believe I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors and my accomplishments are not my own but resulted due to what they accomplished in their lives. I view my family history as building blocks with each generation improving, if only in millimeters. My ancestors came from Germany, Sweden and Bohemia. Three of my great-grandparents were immigrants. My parents both knew their grandparents and had a relationship I find it amazing to be so close to the immigrant generation yet so far away. I say far away because the language and customs are gone. We are completely â€Å"American† but in writing this paper I realized the values of the old countries remain alive and well within the current generation. The maternal side of my family contains Swedish and Bohemian ethnicities. My maternal grandmother was 100% ethnic Swedish. My great-grandparents arrived in America in between 1874 and 1888. The section on parenting issues for parents of color in Diller (2011) while my grandparents were not people of color they were immigrants which made them different. I wonder what experience my grandmother had growing up in a home with parents who were born in another country, spoke a different language and had different customs. I knew Grandma was raised by immigrant parents but I never thought how that would affect their parenting style and if the children were teased because their parents were different and how their parents helped the children deal with it. I now wish I had spoken to my grandmother about this and how it was to grow up in... ...ow my great-grandfather’s ethnic identity, his self-image of being German, was impacted (Diller, 2011). I can’t begin to understand how my great-grandfather must have felt during this time knowing the country he chose to become a part of and was a upright citizen in thought he was suspect in some way just because he was German. Knowing someone in my family was forced to assimilate, to give up his native language to take on English the language of the domnianat culture, made me angry and sad (Diller, 2011). I myself would personally love to be able to speak German along with the other native languages of my ancestors. I know the values I have written about provide mere snapshots of the cultural values of my ancestors but I believe they impact the way I live my life and view the world. So how does all of this affect my identity and place in American society?