Showing off my heritage in the gallery.

I’m trying to decide what to talk about for my Heritage Gallery assignment. I am supposed to bring in something that expresses my heritage to tell the class a little bit about what has shaped me. I’m not really sure what to bring in. Julie presented last class and told us about how her family always makes guacamole together. My family doesn’t really do anything like that. Hmmm.

So I called up my dad and asked him for suggestions. He’s always good at things like this. He suggested I talk about my grandfather. After much deliberation, I took his suggestion. He sent me the picture of my grandfather that sits on his desk at home. This picture never really had a great significance to me because I never really got to talk to my grandfather about his experience in the war, but it is something that he and my dad used to talk about a lot. I vividly remember going to visit my grandmother’s house with my dad once a year. She would sit us down on her black plether couch with towels covering them to protect from dirt. She would take out the photo albums. The same ones, every year. “This is your father when he was a little baby…. Look here, this is when your father was leaving for college….” She had albums upon albums and albums of pictures. The ones of my grandfather during his time as a soldier were in a separate shoe box. Each photograph, postcard and letter was dated and labeled. My grandmother is big on pictures. She loves telling stories of the past. And so this is why I decided to bring in the picture. It is something that reminds me of spending time with my family.

I am nervous to present my Heritage Gallery assignment because I know its going to be a lot different than everyone else’s. But I suppose that the point of this exercise, learning about each other and our similarities and differences. Not only will this give us a better understanding of each other and where we come from but it will give each of us a great appreciate for our differences. I’m interested to see what everyone else brings in...