Matt Lindner

Professor Flowers
EDU 280
01/27/2020

Cultural Autobiography

Who am I? I am many things. First and foremost I’m a loving father of two

and devoted husband of 11 years. I was born in a small town in Northeast Ohio

before moving to Las Vegas at 26 years of age. These two places couldn’t be more

different in that Ohio in the 1980’s wasn’t what I would call diverse. My high

school had only a few children of color in the entire class. I didn’t meet my first

Spanish speaking individual until I was 20 years old and in my third year of

college. Needless to say moving to Las Vegas was a definite culture shock. I had

never seen so many different cultures and ethnicities all interacting together but at

the same time living in their separate groups throughout the city. The different

styles of food, music, and personalities were fascinating and captured my interest

almost immediately.

My parents had roots in Germany, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland. I have

one sister five years younger than me and no living grandparents. I only wish I had

spent more time with them learning about our cultural heritage before they passed
but all I know is what my parents have passed down throughout the years. Some of

their famous dishes like chicken paprikash and wienerschnitzel and stories about

their parents fighting in World War II are just of a few of the things I’ve come to

learn about our families past. Some may think that living in such a culturally

isolated place for my entire childhood would dissuade me from being accepting of

other cultures and beliefs, but incidentally it did just the opposite and has

encouraged me to learn as much as I can about other people.

My parents were devout Catholics, so of course so was I up until I went to

college and found that my religious beliefs differed from what I was taught as a

child and haven’t been practicing since. This was one of the first times that I can

remember taking something that was ingrained in my head since birth and not

taking it as face value but in turn questioning the substance of it and rejecting what

I was taught.

Writing this essay has forced me for the first time to think back and reflect

on how and where I was raised has had a larger impact than I had previously

realized. I’ve never thought of multiculturalness as such an important character

trait, but after looking back throughout my past I can now see that being able to

understand other people’s cultures and try to take the time to see things through

others points of view can be a very valuable skill when navigating through life,
especially in a classroom setting where you have developing minds from all sorts

of backgrounds, understanding how and why they may see things as they do can be

an invaluable asset.