I chose to make by cultural artifact the University at Buffalo. The main reason that drove me to pick this was that I could encompass so much into my paper. I was able to include al kinds of examples of people, food, and places. My experience at UB is amazing I really feel like I am part of the cultural experience at UB. There was a point in the essay where I was struggling to fill in the space required. I was out of thing to say about my identity. But with some great suggestions about finding my new identity at UB as my Italian American self I was about to change my thesis. This was especially interesting because in each paragraph I proved something different about my social identity until I proved I was an Italian American. So my thesis slowly changed thought the paper. While I was writing this I was also sitting home alone and I was feeling very home sick. I was in buffalo for the first summer on my own. This was also the first summer I have spent away from my parents. So much while I was writing I was subconsciously writing about my fond memories of home. This is why I also made such a big deal about the sauce in the paper. It was just something that has always comforted me and that I was thinking about when I was wringing away from my folks back home. While I was writing this paper I also included many of my friends because they left Buffalo for the summer so I haven’t been able to see them. Writing about them enabled me to encapture the memories we shared during the school year, which will share, again come September. I also included many references to my family because it was that week when I found out that my job at Lowe’s would not allow me to take the July 4th weekend off. Now usually this wouldn’t have been a big deal but, this was going to be a large family gathering of the family on my Italian side. So I felt that by not going I was going t loose touch with my roots in some sort of absurd way. To make up for this I needed to assert my Italian into my paper to almost prove it to my self sense I was not going to be in Jersey celebrating it with my family.
