My Cultural Identity

The word Culture has many different meanings and for a long time it only seemed confined to my ethnic background. My teachers in grade school would ask me what my culture was and the first and only thing I would think of is that I’m a white American. Yes, that is what I am, but also a Woman, a sports geek, a music lover, a California native, a waitress, a student and many more. From the moment I was born, I was put into multiple different culture groups. Some which were by choice while others I chose to join myself. Although some of these groups were made unconsciously they have shaped my ideas, beliefs, and thoughts today. Growing up in the Bay Area I have lived a very diverse lifestyle filled with millions of people that are culturally different.
For instance, our sex. I was born a female without choice and because of that I was automatically put into my first cultural group; females. While I know there are millions of females in the world, we all share many common values and behaviors as a group. One of the most common shared values is maternity and family commitments. One commonality that we share is too look after, nurture and sustain the care for our conceived children. Women are believed to be the caregivers and are put into this role from the time we are born. This creates a shared background between all women because of not only our physical biology but our shared values when it comes to motherhood. Some common behaviors shared by women are a desire for emotional connection and the desire to nurture. In this group, we also have a shared way of dressing such as how clothes are designed to accentuate the body. The cuts are generally more form fitting and often more skin is
One of the first questions people ask when they meet you is “So what do you do?” and this is because our daily tasks are very linked to our cultural identity. I am currently a waitress and within this group, we have many shared values such as responsibility, dependability, and punctuality. We are all there for one common goal and that is to achieve our tasks and grow as employees. We have rules such as how we dress, how we communicate with customers, and how we perform our set tasks for the shift. Communicating with each other is done professionally in the work place but also outside of work on a comfortable and personal level. While being in the workplace culture relationships that are formed may develop into personal relationships as well. Within this group there is hierarchy between various positions such as servers, bartenders, supervisors, managers and general managers. Without this hierarchy, this culture would not succeed. When it comes to discipline there is zero tolerance for misconduct within the workplace, if there is it can ruin any relationships that were built outside of the workplace. Everyone within this group, similar to the others have many shared experiences and