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Kozlosky 1

Katrina Kozlosky
ENG101
Culture Essay
19 October 2016
This Is My Culture
I do not know specific details about my family, except for what my dad and my papa on
my moms side has told me. He told me that his grandfather (my great-grandfather) Anthony
Stanley Kozlosky migrated to Ellis Island from Poland. However, he died in the mid 1900s, so
my dads dad (my grandfather) did not elaborate on his father much more than that. Many years
ago, I asked my papa where his family came from and he told me that his family immigrated
from England in the 1700s. They have been in America ever since. Unfortunately, my papa died
a few years ago, so I cannot find any additional information on his heritage due to the fact that
his name, David Harris, is generic. There was too much ambiguous information surrounding that
name. That is all I could uncover about my family heritage.
My social organization has always consisted of the lower middle class. My mom had me
when she was nineteen years old, and my dad was twenty-one. They had low paying jobs for
most of my childhood, until my dad got a job working as a semi-truck driver. It was my mom,
my sister, and me for a year with my dad in and out between trips. My mom and dad separated
when I was six. My mom, sister, and I moved to Oklahoma right after my parents separation. We
lived in Oklahoma for five years, living with my moms friends and by ourselves. My mom had
several jobs while living out there, sometimes even more than one at a time. Despite my mom
working so much all those years, we were still a close knit family between the three of us. We

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moved back to Arizona after my mom got pregnant with my little sister from my moms fianc at
the time. We lived with my aunt, my cousins, and my papa when we moved back in 2008. We
lived in several places in Arizona for the seven years that we have been back, including:
Buckeye, Rainbow Valley, Avondale, Flagstaff, Doney Park, Chino Valley, Mesa, and Gilbert.
We have lived with my nana, my aunts, my grammy, and my cousins during my time back in
Arizona. Our social organization is middle class with family, both nuclear and extended.
Our customs and traditions are built off of Christian culture according to the American
dream. My older sister and I were brought up to read the bible and follow the Ten
Commandments. We were taught to respect authority and our elders. Holidays we celebrate are
Valentines day, Easter, the Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New
Years. My mom taught my me and my sister to respect the law and to never break it or we suffer
the consequences. Unlike other families, we do not have many of our own traditions, except for
those American society has integrated into our lives.
The religion my family primarily follows is Christianity. We believe that God put us on
Earth and his son, Jesus Christ, died for our sins. Growing up, we went to church every Sunday.
Before every meal, we prayed as a family. Christmas time was an enormous celebration of Jesus
Christ in our home. My sister and I went to Sunday school as kids. As teenagers, we went to
youth church. Religion was the most valued thing we shared as a family.
For generations in my family, English is the language learned and spoken. My whole
family speaks American English, but my ancestors on my moms side came from England, so
they spoke proper English. English is also the only language my family currently speaks. On my
dads side of the family, they spoke Polish. The language was not passed down the generations,
so none of my family still speaks Polish.

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My family respects art and literature in all forms. Crocheting has been passed down from
my nanas side of the family from female generations for years. In fact, I still carry out that art
form. My sister and I were brought up to read all kinds of books because literacy is success in
todays society. Art and literature are not culturally defining in my family.
The majority of my family has Republican beliefs, however I do not come from a
politically immersed background. I only have slight Republican beliefs because I have overheard
my dad talk about politics and it is what I grew up knowing. I am indifferent to almost all politics
as an adult because it tears people apart, rather than bringing them together. In the United States,
I have only ever known a constitutional republic, but my ancestors from England had a
Parliament and Poland was a Republic. All of these forms of government were different from
what I know in my culture.
The economic system I live in is a mixed economy. My English ancestors lived in a
market economy. My Polish ancestors had a command economy. We are lucky as American to
have the freedom to make our own economic choices, but have some government involvement.
We do not have to buy or trade goods or services, such as animals or labor in our economy, or
have almost all of our economics controlled for us, like my ancestors. I think American culture is
privileged in that aspect.
I am an American, too many generations to count, with ancestors from Poland and
England. I come from a middle class, religious, republican family. I am me.

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