Clay Robertson

Professor Sipin
English 211C
19th Jan. 2015
Who am I? A Cultural View
I am Clay Mitchell Robertson, a young man who is almost 21 years old and am preparing
for the real world. I have dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. I have fair skin but I tan easily.
So the question is, what gives me these characteristics? My family lineage would
attribute greatly to this. My physical features come greatly from my mothers side. Her
family is mostly Scottish, tracing back to the ancient Clan Duncan. Now this may explain
some things but not things like why I tan so easily. This is where my fathers genes. His
family is mostly Italian and Native American. Not only does this explain the tanning, it
also says a lot about my bone structure. This mixture of cultures has made me who I am
on a very base level, but so far this is barely scratching the surface. According to this one
could only get a very vague idea of who I am, but as I learned very early on there is much
more to someone than how they look. So deeper than surface level who am I, and what
makes me so? There a few things that would make me who I am on a deeper level. The
predominant things are family, chosen family, or friends, and religion.
I grew up for seven years being the only child and then I my parents had my
sister, which has given me a lot of the normal characteristics of both an only child and the
oldest sibling. My mom always stressed the importance of family, as we would travel
every Sunday to see my extended family. This is still something that is very important to
me today as family, whether blood or people that are just that close, are the ones that will

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help you out when you really need it. My father and I have a very complicated
relationship, as we do not really have one. I remember my first day of college when my
parents dropped me off I said good bye to my mother and sister, but when it came time to
say goodbye to my father we just stood there. He awkwardly shifted over and gave me a
hug, something I am sure he only did because my mother forced him to, and left. This is
how little we really talked by this point. Even though I had my aunt and uncle to teach
me a lot it wasnt the same. They own a farm and this is something that had a major
influence on me. I spent a lot of time working on the farm, as that was how they made
their living. They taught me how to grow my own food cook it and take care of the
animals. Most importantly they taught me how to be self-sufficient. Because of them, I
could strike out on my own and make it. They also taught me to hunt. Hunting teaches
you many things, at least how we do it. It has made me realize that you should use
everything you are given and not take things for granted. With out them I would
definitely not be who I am today. Not only are they important but they also have a son,
my cousin, who I spent quite a lot of time with growing up. He was always kind of the
black sheep of our family and he taught me that just because you may do things by
unconventional means that does not mean that it is wrong. Because of him, I have always
somewhat lived by the idea that it is better to ask forgiveness than permission. Even with
these people in my life though things just kept coming back to my life and how bad
things were between my father and I. This has definitely affected me in a major way. It
makes it hard for me to trust people off the back. It has also made me think about what I
will be like as a parent because I do not want to be like he was to me growing up.

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My friends are the one that really made me see how much of a problem this was.
The problem was that as a child I did not have many friends. This left me to find other
things to fill my time. I did not have many video games or anything like that, but what I
did have was a big collection of books and music. I remember whenever things got really
bad between my father and I and I would not be in good way I would make my way up to
my room and get lost in a book. They gave me a world to escape to. The problem with
this is that the books I read had a lot of characters going through terrible situations so not
only did I think that what was happening to me was normal, I was grateful because I
thought that I could be worse. I wasnt until I was a bit older and started really getting in
to sports that things began to change. I had always done a sport that was one of my
fathers big things. It took a while though before I really started to enjoy them. Once I did
I started making friends and subsequently told them of my situation, expecting them to be
right there with me. I was shocked when they were not. They were the ones that really
started a change in my mind. Without this family I had chosen I do not know where I
would be today.
When all else failed I had religion. I was raised going to a Presbyterian church.
My family went every Sunday. This was fine and good as I was a child and easily
molded. It wasnt until I was old enough to start asking questions that I strayed from that
faith. I didnt feel like going that weekend I would say. Growing up with a father like
mine forced me to grow and mature very quickly, so all this happened a quite the young
age for me. Going in to high school I started going to a Baptist church and went there
through out high school. This is when I really started listening to what they were saying. I
learned a lot about myself and what I wanted to believe which launched my interest of

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not only my religion, but also religions in general. My question was always what made
people act the way they do, this stemming of course from my father. Currently I am
leaning more to being a Christian deist like a lot of the founding fathers of the country
were. I believe that there is a God that created the universe, but I do not know how much
of a role he has had since. This makes sense because it eliminates that idea of why is God
letting this happen? If God is not guiding everything he is not letting it happen to you it is
just the circumstances you were given. Religion has also peaked my interest ethics. One
of my favorite things to do is go to a coffee shop or hookah bar and arguing ethical
debates with my friends. I suppose this is an effort on my part to figure out my fathers
mind subconsciously. Through religion I learned to forgive him. Today our relationship is
not really good but there is at least one that can be mentioned. It does however include
not really talking unless we need to.
So that is who I am. At least that is a brief over view of who I am. I do not know
if there are enough words to truly describe who someone is because you can not show
their hopes and dreams, what keeps them awake at night, or what their ticks really are
without truly knowing their heart, and is there any way to make ones heart paper if you
will? However from a cultural sense these are the biggest contributing factors to who
someone really is. Family, friends, and religion really shape people. Ive always thought
that the company you keep says a lot about you. I also have a firm belief that you either
act like your family or you sway away from them. Now you know who I am, who are
you?

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