I am from...

It is the new fad. Spit in a tube, send it to the lab and poof you have a list of countries your ancestors came from. I’ve fallen to the fad. I’ve spit into two different tubes, Ancestry and 23 and Me. I have my results form Ancestry already but I am still waiting on 23 and Me. It has been fun and exciting to see the migration of past relatives but nothing that truly surprised me. I am a little more mixed up than I originally thought but only in small amounts. This has fascinated my family so much that my three daughters, my husband and sister have recently spit into their tubes. I even had a cousin find a brother she didn’t know she had because of a connection with my DNA, talk about a BIG SURPRISE.






Before I started all this DNA research, I visited the high school where my daughters attend. It was Special Friend Visitors Day and I was a guest for my daughter's classmate. She needed a special friend to attend classes with her and I was honored to be her special friend. As I sat in this high school English class, I was thoroughly impressed with the students and the teacher and the way she guided the students through the reading assignment and correlating it with present day. As the class progressed they were discussing poetry and different techniques to write a poem, which is a well-known difficult task. Then the students were given a template to writing a poem. The template was from an original poem by George Ella Lyon titled, Where I’m From. The template was designed to ask specific questions that each person would fill in with the correct correlating word, for example, noun, adjective or product name. Someone may think what a cheat sheet for poetry writing but I was fascinated. The students diligently went to work and even chuckled a little through the process. Shall I repeat they were chucking through poetry writing! They were having fun writing poetry? I decided to join in the fun too. My result is below.






I AM FROM POEM






I am from a flag of green, white and red,


from Dandelion and yeast.


I am from the home of Italian Immigrants. (Loud, large, aromas of food.)


I am from flour and eggs mixed together for substance.


I am from Sunday dinners and loud conversations,


from Gilberto and Rosina.


I’m from the strength and pride of Italy,


from family comes first and cousins are best friends.


I’m from the Roman Catholic Church, Jesus is my savior,


from the United States of America, Connecticut, Italy, pasta, tomatoes, and red wine.


I’m from the boat voyage to America from Abruzzi for a land of opportunity, growth, and hard work,

from becoming an American Citizen was of most importance.


I am from leaving family and never seeing some of them again,


from always moving forward and getting back up when we fall.


I am from hard work, stubbornness and a willful desire to take on anything,


from Italy and the USA.


I am everything in one.






What I learned that day is how easy it can be to inspire students and build confidence in what can feel like a difficult task. Poetry writing may come easy for some but for the majority of us it can be a frightening assignment. The right teacher, the right assignment and I saw students’ blossom, laugh and shine through a 15-minute exercise. 15 minutes that could ripple down to confidence in the next tough assignment, confidence in the next tough conversation or confidence in being the next successful writer. I reconnected to my previous generations, their dreams and sacrifices and was reminded again of the importance of the people I come from.








Take the DNA test if you’re curious or don’t really that’s a personal decision. Whether you do or don’t you already have a history, a connection that is waiting to be remembered, wrote about or reminisced with. Even if there are the toughest of circumstances you have not walked the path alone.