My Family Culture

In the event of a major catastrophe the three items I would want to take with me to my host country would be my IPhone, a thumb drive with family photos and contact information to family and friends, and perhaps a Kindle reader.

I would choose my IPhone because it has so much information on such a tiny device. There are phone numbers and addresses to just about everyone I know. There is music which is very important in our family. We are always listening to music of all different genres and on this little IPhone we have everything from Christian Music to Hard Rock and everything in between. It also contains auditions samples my daughter has made and those are priceless. The IPhone also contains many apps that keeps my son occupied when he gets figity. The IPhone also contains a camera and pretty good flashlight which I think might come in handy in the event of a catastrophe.

About two years ago our pasture caught on fire during a very dry Texas summer. I was at work and my brother saw the flames and called me. As I was driving home he called me back to tell me the house was about to catch on fire and what did I want him to get out before the fire consumed the house. My children were safe and my husband was at work, so there wasn't a single item I could think of to send him into the house to get. I am not attached to material possessions. My husband said if anything run in and get the external hard drive from the computer as it contains a massive amount of pictures and videos of the kids and the rest of our extended family. Since then we have purchased a large thumb drive and have transferred photos and videos as well as important contact information to the thumb drive and we keep it in a fire proof safe. Luckily, just as the fire was at the house the wind shifted and went the other direction. We were very lucky to have not lost anything, but honestly the only thing we really cared about losing were the photos. Photos tell so many stories and evoke so many memories--they are very important to our family.

The Kindle reader would be loaded with books for each member of our family. We all enjoy reading and having the opportunity to read a book of our choice would be comforting and would ease some of the stress of the evacuation.

If I were only allowed to keep one item it would be the  thumb drive. The IPhone would very quickly lose its charge and would be harder to keep up with than the small thumb drive that could easily be carried in my pocket. The Kindle reader too would lose its charge and the only value of this item is the ability to read our chosen books. My children would probably choose to keep the IPhone because of its versatility, but I think I would prefer have copies of old (and new) photos.

The only real insight I gained from this exercise is that I am not a very sentimental person and our family doesn't have a lot of "tradition". I also realize it is time for me to update my thumb drive with newer photos and videos.