The stories she passed on.

I recently turned 19, and as I was sitting down thinking about my life, I realized that this will be my last year as a teenager. As these thoughts swept through my mind, I began reflecting on how I got here, the people who assisted me on my journey, and all the memories from my childhood that started flooding in. The ones that held my attention the most were the stories I had heard from my grandma.

A big part of communication is oral communication, rooted in the belief that it helps pass down stories that might otherwise be forgotten. This is how we learn the history of our ancestors. My grandma would sit me, my siblings, and my cousins down to talk about her parents, her life experiences, and stories from our culture. One story I vividly remember is about a man who had a long mouth that dragged on the floor as he walked. When people made fun of him, he would swallow them whole. As a child, I used to be scared of those stories, but looking back now, I see they were meant to teach us not to make fun of people who were different because there would be consequences.

As part of our culture, we have proverbs and stories that my grandmother and parents told me growing up to preserve our heritage. These stories fed my knowledge and made me proud of my culture. The stories my grandmother passed on, which I will one day pass on, keep — and will continue to keep — our culture alive.