My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

The first item I would choose to take with me holds great significance. My mother passed away from cancer two years ago. My brother took some of her ashes and had them blown into a glass orb with speckles of gold all through it. Looking at it reminds me of the ocean and all the trips we took together to beautiful places where we could swim in the warm water. I hold this very dear and would want to bring it with me.
The second item is a drawing my husband did for me before we were married and was the first present he had ever given me. He is a wonderful artist and since then has painted and given me many more of his pieces. This one is especially dear because he did the whole drawing in black colored pen and it is in Day Of The Dead style. It makes me think back to all the great times we have had and how I felt when I was given the picture.

The third item I would take with me is a small glass cube which my daughters picture was etched into when they were the ages of 2 and 4. I love it because it reminds me of them at that age and how quickly time flies. It would be a way to bring a picture with me and to always have a memory of my younger children.

If I was told I could only keep one of the items upon arrival I would feel worse than if I never took them at all. I already had in my mind I got to keep the items and have them to remind me of my past. It also would be a very difficult decision on which two items to get rid of, and I would feel horrible throwing away things which mean so much.

I have learned about what type of things are important to me as a person. The small things I would take are connected to memories and a certain time. The orb with my mother’s ashes connects me to all the memories surrounding her. Most of all it made me reflect about the important people in my life and the time with them.