My own little tribute drabble.
Sep. 11th, 2003 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aruanI left my home country a little over thirteen years ago (!) to come here with my mother and brother. My parents divorced soon thereafter and my mom remarried, a decision I've never resented despite the myriad hardships of making a completely new life here.
Apparently, it was my arguing with my stepfather, in my most indignant non-twelve-inch voice while waiting in downtown Miami's INS office, that exempted us from the interview we were there for. Unbeknownst to me, this meeting was supposed to determine that my mother didn't marry him for a green card. As teenage girls, however rational their points, do not get into heated debates over instituting internet access within the household with someone they were supposed to be trying their damnedest to appease, nor someone liable to not take kindly to being talked at by a teenage girl, my display was sufficient to conclude that we were an honest-to-goodness family, grant us green cards and become permanent residents. I believe we had internet within the house in a month's time. *g*
And we're still here. My mother and brother by consequence are already naturalized - my application had to be filed separately, as I turned 18 before her papers were finalized. Glitches and Issues aside, this spring will hopefully see my full indoctrination into the citizen ranks of the United States, which I've called myself a national of for years now.
I treasure the virtually absolute freedom afforded me not just inside my bedroom but out on the street, even on the steps of my Capitol should I so choose. I'm grateful that I can believe in any God or none at all and have no persecution to fear from the government. I do not fail to appreciate that I'm not only being educated at an illustrious, liberal post-secondary institution, but that my merits and the state of Florida, in recognizing them, allow me to do it for free.
I will exercise my right to vote.
I love this, (almost) my country. I believe in the ideals on which it was founded, the hard work on which it was built, and strive to make the most of the endless possibilities afforded to me as a resident of it (even if at times all that that entails is writing slash, wearing a short skirt or listening to disco.) Even if its occasionally lamentably inept bureaucrats want to fingerprint me for the same database for the third time in my thirteen years here. Because these things change, y'know.
At least some don't.
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
Apparently, it was my arguing with my stepfather, in my most indignant non-twelve-inch voice while waiting in downtown Miami's INS office, that exempted us from the interview we were there for. Unbeknownst to me, this meeting was supposed to determine that my mother didn't marry him for a green card. As teenage girls, however rational their points, do not get into heated debates over instituting internet access within the household with someone they were supposed to be trying their damnedest to appease, nor someone liable to not take kindly to being talked at by a teenage girl, my display was sufficient to conclude that we were an honest-to-goodness family, grant us green cards and become permanent residents. I believe we had internet within the house in a month's time. *g*
And we're still here. My mother and brother by consequence are already naturalized - my application had to be filed separately, as I turned 18 before her papers were finalized. Glitches and Issues aside, this spring will hopefully see my full indoctrination into the citizen ranks of the United States, which I've called myself a national of for years now.
I treasure the virtually absolute freedom afforded me not just inside my bedroom but out on the street, even on the steps of my Capitol should I so choose. I'm grateful that I can believe in any God or none at all and have no persecution to fear from the government. I do not fail to appreciate that I'm not only being educated at an illustrious, liberal post-secondary institution, but that my merits and the state of Florida, in recognizing them, allow me to do it for free.
I will exercise my right to vote.
I love this, (almost) my country. I believe in the ideals on which it was founded, the hard work on which it was built, and strive to make the most of the endless possibilities afforded to me as a resident of it (even if at times all that that entails is writing slash, wearing a short skirt or listening to disco.) Even if its occasionally lamentably inept bureaucrats want to fingerprint me for the same database for the third time in my thirteen years here. Because these things change, y'know.
At least some don't.
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
