Is This Real Life?!

                Culture is something that everyone has and is constantly changing; aspects of culture are a part of everyday life from the way we speak to each other to the way we dress. I have personally had an experience with culture shock and in some ways culture transmission are two aspects of culture that I have dealt with personally when coming to college. Teenshealth.org defines culture shock as “the confusing and nervous feelings a person may have after leaving a familiar culture to live in a new and different culture. When you move to a new place, you're bound to face a lot of changes. That can be exciting and stimulating, but it can also be overwhelming.” The book defines culture transmission as the “process by which one generation passes culture to the next.”

            My biggest experience with culture shock was when I first came out to DeKalb for school. Being a Puerto Rican from the Humboldt Park area in Chicago I was very accustomed to everything being one way. Where I’m from everyone looks and speaks either just like me or very similar to me. While in high school all my teachers would try to warn me that the real world was nothing like the neighborhood I was used to for eighteen years of my life. Of course being the stubborn teenager I was I blew them off. Coming to NIU was the first time I had ever actually felt like the minority that everyone had called me for so many years. I have only been in college two years, both of which have made me realize what a minority I truly am. Being in DeKalb I seen that my norms, value and beliefs were not the same for everyone. Coming from Humboldt Park that was what I was used to, so being out here was definitely an eye opener.  I had to get used to something completely new, somewhere that I could not speak spanglish everywhere and expect people to know what I am saying.

            I think that I also got culture transmission when I came to college because when I first moved out here I would call my aunt about everything and she would give me a ton of advice on how to handle things. My aunt, her sorority sisters and my cousins all taught me how to be a “college girl.” I had to learn to keep some of my roles from back home as well as accept my role as “the college girl.”