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new perspective

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Author:
AmyElizabethRPCV

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So I recently met family I’d never known anything about. It was so weird and fun, but mostly helpful to me. As TCKs we often feel disconnected from our theoretical roots or traditions et., and so meeting these people I’m distantly related to was a completely new understanding of my family but moreover of my overall culture.  I know we often try to fit in with our supposed heritage and sometimes don’t feel like we can because we don’t really understand that with which we are fitting into. Meeting people who have roots you ’should’ have too, was really interesting for me. I know they think I’m different from them and that is fine because we learn from each other. Listening to different accents and asking questions about typical things I ’should’ know more about or have experienced made me really start to understand what ‘typical Americans’ are like. I had never been on a motorcycle, which they thought was the weirdest thing ever, yet I could explain how to drive on the other side of the road and about the relative speed of the autobahn. Spending time with those who are so normal for the area they live in was very anthropological and fulfilling. It made me appreciate what I knew of my various cultures to begin with, as well as what I have learned through osmosis and by growing up as I have.  I think this trip with the ‘new family’ was different and more ‘enlightening’ because I was more observant with new people than with family I’d always known. Not sure if that makes sense to others but it does to me! I’d always spent time with relatives who were also very typical of their region but I only saw them as family, not as having a distinct culture. We went bowling, and to church, had typical food and felt like insiders and outsiders; it was great!  It was basically “this is what we do” and my mom and I were often thinking, this is what they do? Okk..  The only “bad-weird” thing for me was educational /opportunity background differences. My immediate family are all very well educated and work in what are considered careers, not jobs. They asked about my degrees, and career path which was nothing they understood and inadvertently made me feel elitist and not understood or relateable to at all.  At one point, a cousin said “is there anywhere you haven’t been?” which was so funny to me because there are so many places I haven’t been to or know much about, but they think I must know something about everything; and I’m half their age!  Anyway, seeing them more closely as people of a place, made me understand my country better, and it was nice to feel more connected.


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July 29, 2008 | Filed Under General Forum 

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Comments

3 Responses to “new perspective”

  1. 1
    Ayako
    Ayako Says:
    July 30th, 2008 at 1:11 am

    I went through a period when I tried to trace my genealogy a bit. Some of it helped me understand why I prefer to do things in a certain way - though I am assuming this is like the ‘placebo effect’ one gets from taking sugar pills instead of really effective drugs. :p

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  2. 2
    Cattt
    Cattt Says:
    July 30th, 2008 at 1:32 am

    Ayako I did the same thing - except I found out I had an ancestor who was a notorious irish highwayman!!!
    He was eventually hung, but they still haven’t found his stash of gold, and no he wasnt a leprechaun!!!
    I love seeing my non-TCK family. We know we are different but we don’t really care. On both sides, which is great.

    (Is this spam?)

  3. 3
    Ayako
    Ayako Says:
    July 30th, 2008 at 1:47 am

    Cattt: Well, who can say it isn’t fun finding out more about who our ancestors were? ;)

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