Citizen of America...

I meant to post this stuff yesterday, but my internet cut out. So here go some thoughts that were written yesterday:

"While listening to Obama speak on the meaning of citizenship today, I was reminded of a story. I'm sorry that on this momentous day, I'm not writing a story of Liberty and Hope.

It was the spring of the year 2001 and the the five year mark had just hit for us, green-card-holding residents (the previous November). We applied for citizenship and were granted it. We had a much easier time obtaining green cards than most people do (although you'd be surprised how many people I've met that won the green card lottery -- at least three families off the top of my head). We had to drive up to San Francisco for the naturalization ceremony.

So the day before, I naturally told my teachers I'd be absent from school in the morning because I had to get my citizenship.

Long story made short, we actually arrived late for the ceremony and didn't get naturalized that day. But the weird part, for me, came later. I came back to school in the middle of third period, and as I entered the room, my teacher and classmates clapped for me and congratulated me.

I guess because I never had to strive to get my citizenship, it was never this great Dream... I just didn't feel like it was a big deal. The congratulations were kind of unexpected and felt weirdly ethnocentric to me. Like ... "welcome to OUR team!" "Congrats on becoming ONE OF US! ONE OF US!"

I mean, for me, the coolest part of getting my citizenship was changing my name and getting a passport finally.

And now, eight years later I still don't feel like an American. And it's always disconcerting to me when Americans tell me I am one. "You have citizenship, right? Then you're an American." Or even better, this argument: "America is all about immigration and integration. In a way, you're even more American than I am!" Who are you to say who I am? (And by their logic, if I'm more American than they are, I'm more of an authority on the subject of what makes an American. Oh noes, a paradox!! ^_~)

I became a citizen automatically because I was a minor and both my parents became citizens. Ukraine doesn't allow dual citizenship, so I am an American citizen only. If I had had a choice in the matter, then I'd probably still pick an American citizenship (because I like to travel and I'm a pragmatist), but I wish I could have had the choice."