My Canadian Teen Culture
Kathryn West
Core Values
As a Christian, my family and I strive to be the best people we can be. We try to tell the truth, we try to love and be a friend to everyone we meet (no matter what that person has done to us), and even when it's hard I try not to follow the crowd and I do what I think is right.I also live my life trying to save every moment, especially the good ones with my friends and family.
Customs and Traditions
My religion plays a big part in my traditions, but not all of them are serious, some of them are for family time.Every year my family and I celebrate New Year's by staying up until midnight and watching the fireworks. We celebrate Easter by going to church for a service, we have an easter egg hunt and we always have a big plater of candy on the kitchen table a week before Easter (I don't know how it lasts). On Canada Day I always stay up to watch the fire works while everyone's asleep (sshh, my Mom doesn't know). Even though we are Christian and believe in God, my family still celebrates Halloween, we hand out candy and we go out 'Trick-or-Treating'. My friends and I always get together at one of our houses and have pizza before going out. (we also get a head start. The friends are; Vania, Heather, Jordan and Ashlyn. My family and I celebrate Christmas too, we have a tradition where when we put up the tree, we all get together and decorate it, we put out stockings and we leave out cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. A fun tradition we have is every Saturday night, my family orders pizza (from Little Ceaser's) and rent a movie , we watch the movie and have popcorn together. Every Sunday we all sit together and watch 'Funniest Home Videos', for the last night before school.
Artifacts
Artifacts that my family has are Christmas decorations, my family collects ornaments from a long time ago, such as; 'Baby's First Christmas', ones my brother, sister and I made when we were young and even some my Mom has had when she was young. My Mom also collects crystal figures, she has bunnies, a swan and she hopes to collect more when she has more money to buy the things she wants. My Mom's boyfriend; Mark collects everything that's 'Star Wars', he has 'Star Wars' cups, PEZ despensers, books, pillows and even a life size cardboard cut out of 'R2-D2' (it's signed by the actor).
Language
Language doesn't play a big part in my family, although my Grandad is teaching me slowly how to say some things in German, we don't speak any other language but English at home. But slangs are important to me when I am texting or trying to write something quickly.