Apparently I'm Brown...

I'm not quite sure what it is about the way I look, but over the last year or so, I have had a lot of people assume that I come from a Latin background. On an almost weekly basis, someone asks if I have family who are either Puerto Rican, Brasilian, Mexican, or some other Latin/Hispanic background. I personally think I am pretty pale for someone to make such an accusation, but whatever, I'll take it. I was on the phone with my mom and sisters earlier, and Meghan said something about how she wished she had some black in her. Mom and I kind of laughed, and then Mom said something about how I am the dark one in the family. I thought she was referring to the fact that outside of the summer months, I am consistently the one in the family with the best natural tan. No. What she was referring to was my tribe.
Sorry to my non-Mormon friends, but if any of you are reading, this might be a bit confusing. When I received my patriarchal blessing back in high school, I found out that I am of the tribe of Manasseh. Before receiving my blessing, I always assumed I would be of the tribe of Ephraim, after all, that is the tribe my mother is from and I come from a pretty European-dominant background. I had never taken the time to research much about the tribe of Manasseh, but I knew plenty about Ephraim. I figured I would do a bit of research into Manasseh, and see what I find. I found out that the greater majority of people who come from Latin America, Middle Eastern, and Polynesian ancestry tend to be of the tribe of Manasseh. As far as I am aware, I am none of those, with the exception of a very little amount of Native American(Latin America) blood running through me. I thought that maybe my patriarch had made a mistake. As I talked around with people, I only found one other person who was not from the tribe of Ephraim, and he was also from Manasseh, but he has very strong Native American roots, so that made good sense.
I tend to read in to things a lot. I remember thinking that this was some sign about my past and people in my lineage. Maybe someone had performed some infidelity and I am the proof of such? Maybe one of my grandfathers have some kind of  Latin background that we are unaware of? The ideas I had when I got my blessing and found out I am of the tribe of Manasseh were pretty funny, and there were a lot of them.
Something that makes a lot of sense now that i know this about myself, is why I've always had a love for the Latin and Middle Eastern cultures. I mean, what kind of crazy person actually wants to learn Arabic and study Middle East studies in school? The fact that Miller South (my middle school) only offered French for foreign language studies always made me furious because I didn't care to learn it, I wanted to learn Spanish or Arabic. When I meet students who are from South America and the Middle East, I automatically want to dive in and learn about their time back home and about their homeland. These things really make a lot more sense  after I think about my tribe. Maybe some of you are thinking that I am reading way too much into this, and maybe I am, but as a girl, I have full right to read way into things like this.
For all of my LDS friends out there who watched or listened to Conference earlier this month, we all know that Elder Bednar really stressed working on family history. He specifically targeted our generation by saying "The coming forth of many tools such as Family Search at a time with the youth are so familiar with the wide variety of communication is no coincidence... Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord — not just to communicate quickly with your friends.” That really hit me and I went straight the next Monday to the institute building, and asked when we will have next semester's class list, so that I could plan on taking a family history class.
It is very easy to take what we learn in Conference and think about it while we converse with one another over the next couple weeks, then easily forget the majority of what was said as the months go on. We are all guilty of this. I am surely no exception to that. I know that I catch myself forgetting a lot of things that were covered in conference as time goes on, but I know that there is a reason we have been advised to work on family history. I wonder if by doing this, I might be able to find a connection in my family to the tribe of Manasseh. Mom thinks that it is just proof that I am supposed to marry a Latino. I guess we'll find out on this journey into research:)