Honor Thy Culture

How Culture Passes Through the Generations

   Family heritage is celebrated and continued in many different ways through kids. For some, they follow in their parent's footsteps and grow the same roots. Others, believe their culture isn't enough and they look to find their own roots. But, there is a third group that does look to continue life like their parents while adding their own flare to their roots. 

 

 
  Within this third group, kids follow in their parents footsteps because it's how they've been taught to go about the world. Different cultures have different opinions that flow through generations. In this third group, the kids will follow and change those ideas. For example, my parents went to high school in the 80s, so they have different opinions in music, culture, style, and art. I grew up listening and loving the songs and movies they did because it's what I was introduced to. However, school opened the doors to mass media and shifted my opinions to my own. I still loved everything my parents shared with me, but I also added new flare to those ideas. This clarifies how there is a third group that exists in many of us. We still love the classics, but also enjoy the future. 

   In all three groups, kids honor their parent's culture in their own ways.  The kids who follow their parents completely will live every aspect and tradition of their culture how their parents did. They honor the culture as their life and the very essence of who they are. The kids who break apart from their parent's culture to discover their own still hold that background, but honor it when it pleases them. They honor their culture as a place or story of how they got to where they are today. Then therer are the kids who follow and break apart from their parent's culture.  They honor their parent's culture by continuing to follow aspects of the culture, but by adding their own flare to it as a result to their generation's influences. It all comes down to who you are as a person and how you feel about the past. Is it something worth keeping?

   Personally, I relate with the third group. I grew up knowing the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody and every Beatles hit. I knew who Howard Keel was and watched the original Justice League. As I have grown older, I've still held onto those likes and dislikes while experiencing my generation's own cultural shifts in mass media. I also come from a mixed Cuban and American background. I've grown up with different traditions that I look forward to sharing with my own kids. Overall, I honor my parent's culture in my own way with a little new generation tweaks.

                           

   Culture is passed down through kids who will then either accept it or deny it or even change it to fit their own beliefs. New generations bring new ideas and opinions with each advancement that change the past and its impact on the future. After all, it is an ever changing world.

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