A Journey Like No Other
I am sitting on a well worn green faux leather coach. The sounds of my family
reverberate all around me, in the kitchen my aunts argue about whether or not green bean
casserole should be a thanksgiving food. My younger cousin plays with my grandmother's cat.
My grandpa sits on his recliner slowly falling asleep. My sister and aunt are playing a duet on the
piano in the other room. This is a familiar scene, we are all gathering at my grandparents house
for our annual Easter celebration. We are not religious but we do practice some traditions passed
down for years such as dyeing easter eggs. We have cups filled with vinegar and food dye that
we then place the eggs into. However the unique thing that has been passed down is the fact that
we create designs with wax on the eggs first before putting them into the dye then after they are
done we remove the wax leaving the patterns that were drawn on before it was dyed.
This tradition comes from the region of the Carpathian Mountains, a range in Europe that
stretches across Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and the place my family originated from,
Czechoslovakia. My ancestors were similar to many others in Czechoslovakia and Eastern
Europe as a whole at that time in the fact that they looked to immigrate to try and improve their
financial situation, or in other words search for opportunity. The family structure of many of
these countries was the reason for their lack of opportunity, for most farmers the land and house
would be passed down to the oldest son leaving the other children to have to strike out on their
own and search for other means of producing for themselves. These younger children often saw
the allure of a chance to start a new life in America and took their chance immigrating to the
United States to try and improve their lives. One such person was my great great grandmother
Julia Serry who was born in Czechoslovakia but eventually immigrated to the United states with
her husband John to try and improve their lives.
These experiences that occurred over a hundred years ago still impact my family today.
My great great grandparents made a near impossible journey from a different country while not
speaking the language all in the hopes that they could create a better future for themselves and
more importantly their children. Every time my family gets together for a holiday or gathering
we are showing that their hard work was worth it, we are all benefiting from what they did so
long ago. And while we gather we still carry on traditions and customs that were passed down
from generation to generation and that originated in a completely different continent. As long as
my family has these traditions we will still be connected to the people who had to go through the
struggle to get them here.