A Narrative Essay About My American Culture

Eighteen years ago, my parents moved to the United States from Ukraine to create a better life for our family. Growing up here I found myself becoming easily accustomed to the American ways, but even though my family and I may have gotten used to that way of life we never lost sight of our Ukrainian culture. When I think about it, the best way that I can describe what my culture is like would be a jigsaw puzzle. When making a puzzle one begins with connecting as many pieces to each other until the exact pieces are found and locked together. Finding the exact pieces that fit isn’t always the easiest, it may take several tries and many mismatching pieces to gain an understanding of what piece goes where; one may have to step back and look at the picture as a whole. I found myself doing just that when I was asked what my culture identity is. For a moment I had to really ask myself if I felt more connected to the American way of life or my Ukrainian culture. I had to put my culture
Along with language giving me this “second soul” it also gave me perspective. Growing up as a kid I spoke Ukrainian and Russian around the time I was to go into kindergarten, I began to learn how to speak in English. I think that was one of the hardest things I might have done, everything I thought was either in Ukrainian or Russian and then I would translate that into English, it helped me continue to gain multiple perspectives. For me, speaking in English doesn’t really impact me as much as it does when I speak in Ukrainian or Russian; it’s merely another way of communication. Where as speaking in Ukrainian automatically connects me to my roots, to what I believe, how I view the world, what I think is right and what I think is wrong but most importantly it serves as a reminder to me of the hard times my family faced in Ukraine and the sacrifices made to give me the life I have