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My family plays a huge roll in my life. We are very tightly knitted and just about all of my immediate family lives in Matamoras or very close to it. My dad’s two brothers and my dad’s parents live within blocks to where I live and my mom’s side of the family lives just outside of town. This makes it easy for all of us to get together on a regular basis. My mother’s side of the family comes from Brooklyn, NY, so they are the classic, old style, Italian, city family. My father’s side comes from all over. My grandfather is from Alabama and he met my grandmother in Germany during the war when he was stationed there. The rest of my dad’s side lives in Georgia. So between having a mom from the city and a dad from the country, I think my brothers and I are very well rounded. My dad’s, father is what we like to call “Heinz 57,” or a little bit of everything. He has Irish, German, Dutch, and whatever else in his heritage. My dad’s mother is 100 percent German, born and raised in Deutschland with tons of family still remaining there. My mom’s parents are 100 percent Italian with our ancestors coming from all over Italy but there are no remaining relatives there. So my main heritage is 50 percent Italian, a little less then 50 percent German, a little bit of Irish and of course last but not least 100 percent American.

Furthermore, my heritage is important to me because I believe in individualism. “One’s culture values the virtues of independence, autonomy, and self-reliance (Riedel 19.)” which makes it pretty important in multiple aspects of our everyday lives. The holidays we celebrate, the traditions we carry, the values we hold and most importantly, where my family originated all leads back to where our great ancestors are from. For example, on Christmas Eve every year we always celebrate the feast of the seven fishes. This is an old Italian tradition that originates from Southern Italy, where it is known as “The Vigil (La Vigilia). My mom was raised Catholic and practicing Catholics are not supposed to eat meat on Christmas Eve. So they have fish. And any time my mom’s side of the family gets together to eat there is never a time when we don’t have an-anti pasta dish out with Italian bread and Sopressata. Then, when my German grandmother cooks she always goes all out. Huge portions of food that could feed an army, Spätzle, potato salad, mashed potatoes, ham, coleslaw, stuffed muffins, the list goes on. Knowing where I’m from and where my family originated gives me a deeper sense of pride in my family and myself.

Regarding my hobbies, my hobbies and sports go hand in hand. I don’t really have a favorite professional team in any sport except baseball. I am, in fact, a Mets fan as much as everyone else hates them! I love being active, working out, and doing anything physical. I started playing baseball when I was five years old. I trained year round at indoor training facilities and on teams in the spring but ended up quitting in 7th grade when I fell in love with lacrosse. I played football and lacrosse through high school and I’m extremely proud to have been the captain my lacrosse team. I was always a small kid compared to all of my other friends and athletes that I competed with/against. For me, I didn’t see my height and weight as an obstacle or issue because in my mind it was all about effort. What I put into it is what I will get back. No coach can criticize or patronize me as long as I give 110 percent effort every time I step onto the field. I was a very self-determined kid and it helped me achieve many things that I strived for growing up. “Free will is the idea that we are able to have some choice in how we act and assumes that we are free to choose our behavior, in other words we are self determined (McLeod, S).” My parents always stressed the point of free will to me. And by having that “free will” instilled in me from the time I was little, it always made me work harder and do my best. George Herbert Mead’s theory talks about the “generalized other” and how individuals take on roles, anticipating others responses to their actions. He proclaimed, “The organized community or social group which gives to the individual his unity of self may be called “the generalized other.” The attitude of the generalized other is the attitude of the whole community. Thus, for example, in the case of such a social group as a ball team, the team is the generalized other in so far as it enters- as an organized process or social activity-into the experience of any one of the individuals (Mead 154.)”

Lastly, I haven’t traveled the world much yet, but I have been fortunate enough to visit a few places. My first trip out of the country was when I was 14 years old. My whole household flew to Germany for a 2-week vacation. It was an absolute blast and I enjoyed every second of it. We visited all of my family that lives in Germany and toured multiple towns and cities. We went to France for a day while we were there but I didn’t enjoy that too much. The area we were in wasn’t very American friendly.

On top of that, I have also been to the Dominican Republic on my senior class trip. The beaches and water are gorgeous there. And finally I went to with my cousin from Germany to Mexico on a week vacation and also enjoyed that very much. He had been living there and made several friends who were Mexican and German. So I got to experience Mexico like a resident instead of a tourist.

In conclusion, I feel I have lived a very privileged life thus far. I have an outstanding, loving, caring family who I can depend on for anything. I have been lucky enough to travel to multiple locations on the globe. I’ve had a very successful high school athletic and academic career that I’m quite proud of. My heritage has played a big roll in my upbringing and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Having multiple nationalities and cultures has broadened my view on many aspects of life and turned me into an adequately more diverse person. If it weren’t for my family and our cultural traditions/values, I would be a much different person then I am today.

Work Cited

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-96.