Hope for the Future

There are certain things that connect our world with the past and the world of our ancestors. Something that we use that helps us relate to the world they left behind to come here to America. I never understood why I was so different from other kids at school, not in the way that I looked, but a difference in how I acted and in what I believed. So what made me... me?

I sat at the front of my Tongan language class and listened as we had a lesson on Tongan culture. Being part Tongan I knew and understood what the teacher was talking about with a familiar feeling. As he talked my mind went back to when I was still in grade school and laughed to myself as I thought about my culture and everything that came with it. If you have ever watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you have a sense of what I am talking about. As the teacher went on, I found myself realize that it's my culture that defines so much about me. The Tongan instructor finished his lecture with this, "You, class, are here to learn the language of your ancestors. You are the bridge between the gap of their world and America and the hope of preserving our culture within this language." Then it hit me that I had just been learning about all of this in Writing150. We were taking part in globalization by bringing our American culture and combining it with our Tongan culture.

This became even more significant to me as I processed it and came to a conclusion. We can all take part in globalization by sharing our cultures with other people. In the past countries have made the mistake of forcing their culture on the countries they conquered and wiping out the native cultures of those people. Instead we can learn from this and take what's good from both cultures and combine them, preserving the old culture and what makes us... us.