Culture

For me culture is who we are, what we know and what we believe. When I was growing up I wasn't aware that not every family did the same things my family did. I grew up going to church on Sunday mornings, visit my grandmother and eat pasta and meatballs at 2pm. I remember being shocked when I realized some of my friends didn't do this. Some of my friends didn't have to be home for Sunday dinner and were able to go to the movies. When I would ask my mother if I could go, it was like I was talking in tongues. She wouldn't hear of it. I just couldn't understand why I couldn't go. Didn't she know I would rather be with my friends.

It has been a long time since those days of family dinners and I long for my mothers meatballs in which sadly since her passing, I will never have again. Honestly, sometimes I still have a hard time understanding why people do what they do. Since I became a Human Service major at BMCC, I have come to have a better understanding. I never really thought about people and the roles their cultures play in their lives or even how cultures are created. I have seen how people are judged and ridiculed because of their beliefs. In my religion and even among friends who are in relationships with people who don't meet societies expectations, are judged for whats believed to be right and wrong. I often wonder about what is means to be normal. Who decides what makes us fit in and does it really matter? Why does society have this right to categorize us and make us different. Not just in our ethnicity but in our class and even in political views. Aren't we all just human.