My German Heritage

I was thinking about certain traits that I see in myself and how I got them. Of course my parents have played a huge part in who I am, as well as all of my experiences and every person with whom I've come into contact have shaped me into the person I am today.

My cultural heritage is mostly German, and I think that three traits I have are attributable to my German heritage (of course having parents with German heritage kind of blurs the lines, but try and work with me here).

1)Thriftiness - I am a pretty "thrifty" person, which has some negative connotation, so I am going to say "the ability to get the most out of a dollar" is a more accurate term for me. On many of my trips I end the trip (ie. I get on the plane to head back home) with very little of the money left that I started with. I have a very good sense of what I have, what I have spent, what I can spend, and what I will need to spend.

2)Emotional Reservation - I am a pretty level-headed person. Especially at my current job, I can often have people getting up in my face, yelling at me, and calling me names (usually because I can't return something for them). I usually can stay very calm and keep my composure through all of their yelling. This doesn't mean that I have no emotions or less emotion than anyone else, it just means that I can keep them in check fairly well.

3)Saving things/Keeping Records - Some people may call it being a "pack rat" but I am really good at keeping records, and saving things. I think I have at least 99% of the receipts from purchases that I have ever made (at least since I've had a bank account). I realize that I may never need them again, and probably won't, but there is always that "what if". I also like keeping keepsakes from my past, especially things such as trips, etc.

Now, you may thoroughly disagree that these are all characteristics of Germans, but these are some of the stereotypes that I hold of the German people. And this is definitely not meant as a negative description, as I myself think they are great characteristics to have.