A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

This is a tough blog to write this week! Thinking about completely being displaced into a new environment is a scary thought. The items that I would take that would appropriately represent my family culture would be: 

• A family photo--depicting my entire family at our last vacation to New Mexico
• My Grandmother's engagement ring
• My families' genealogy

Explaining to others what these items mean to me and my culture would be relatively simple. The family photo speaks for itself. It would be a representation of those that I have with me, and those that have potentially been displaced into other parts of the world. My Grandmother's engagement ring is a family heirloom that means so much to me, and would be more of a keepsake and remembrance of her. My genealogy and family history would be important to me moving forward, and might help me and future generations to understand our background regardless of where we ended up. I would be able to explain to others what my background is--which is quite diverse. 

Giving up two items--in the case that I wouldn't be able to keep all 3--would be devastating! With only 3 items to keep my families' history alive it would be very hard to let any of them go. 

This exercise has really made me think about what is important to me, and my family, and I think has exposed that history and memories are what drive my family culture. 

This situation is less than ideal, however, has happened many times in history. From the Holocaust to the relocation camps of Japanese Americans, many families have been displaced and forced to leave their homes, family's and culture behind.