Personal Narrative-Cultural Self Analysis

I am a 52-year-young white female, with ethnicity that spans from England and Ireland to

Belgium and France. I am an American citizen by birth, having lived my entire life in

Tennessee, save a short stent in California as a child. I was at the tail end of the Baby Boomer

generation, and my best childhood memories are of the 70’s, when bell bottoms and hip huggers

were the rage, and walking down an alley to buy penny candy didn’t raise alarm bells. Although

my family was not involved in politics, today I would definitely label myself as a conservative

who follows her heart when voting. I am a spiritual being and a follower of Jesus Christ. Like

my aunts, mother, and siter, I grew up fast, marrying and having my first child

I’m also an anti-

procrastinator, evidenced by the fact that I’d read the entire textbook for this class and 9 chapters

of the textbook for my other class before the first class meeting. If I’m not weeks ahead on my

assignments, I’m panicked, so you might say I’m a little “high strung.” My maternal family has

a history of depression and a high number of suicides, so my high-strung nature could emanate

CULTURAL SELF-ANALYSIS4

from that. Grades and positive feedback are motivators for me. Because of the way I push

myself, I am always busy and multi-tasking, rarely letting myself relax. I am healthy and happy,

and I look forward to retirement and a change from the hustle and bustle that has been my life so

Key Components of Culture

Who am I? How did I come to be in TN? What makes me live and act the way I do?

These are a few of the questions I posed to my mother and my Aunt Ann. I learned some

interesting things I never knew before. My mother’s family, as far back as I researched, always

lived in the same town. They were very involved in each other’s lives on a daily basis, and a

favorite family quote through the generations is “you can’t let a fart without the whole