Katie Nietubicz
67905@strauss.udel.edu

Whenever I think of my cultural heritage I mostly think of my Father's side of the family which is entirely Polish. My grandparents, whose parents came to America from Poland, speak fluent Polish. It was always a joke around our house that they would speak their other language when I was around and they did not want me to know what they were talking about. I have been brought up practicing many wonderful Polish traditions for almost every occasion. My favorite of which is the celebration of the Wigilia Christmas dinner. Every year we perform this classic tradition whether we are with my grandparents or not. We share bread with those sitting around the table and wish them good luck and happiness for the upcoming year, then we eat a huge meal of fish and other assorted foods. This is always done on Christmas Eve so we save our turkey or ham for the following day. When I was growing up I used to try and seperate myself from my heritage. There were always polish jokes going around and I didn't want anyone to associate me with the way that they always describe polish people. But as I have grown up I have realized how much I like my polish background. I have learned to stand up and show people that I am proud of my culture. My grandparents have been set in their ways and I have been very lucky that many valuable traditions have been passed on to me so that I can be able to pass them on to my children.

I do not know a lot about my Mother's side of the family. She has always told me that she is a Heins 57, which meant that she was a mixture of everything. My Grandfather was the son of an Canadian Indian and my Grandmother was part German and French. Honestly though, I cannot go any further then that. Growing up I never fully checked the origins of my Mom's side of the family because we are not as close as we are with my Dad's side. I always say that I am mostly Polish and I do not think anything about my other culture. I am actually surprised that as I sat here to type this short paragraph on my background that I realized that I do not know the other half of my family. I have always accepted that my Mom's side of the family is just American or Canadian, but I now realize that I still have another part of my life that is yet to be uncovered.