On Becoming US Citizen and the power of declarations

I had mixed feelings about becoming US Citizen. This is something I’ve been working on for a long time; when my request was approved it felt a little bit awkward because I was still not quite there yet, and I didn’t feel like anything had changed, still an expat, still a guest. And that’s natural, my request was approved, but my status hand not changed yet.

Today I participated in the Oath ceremony. Other 25 nationalities were represented there by the applicants, there were 51 of us, I didn’t know that and it felt significant; one per each US state.

The Judge gave us a speech that really moved me. On how the vast majority of Americans are born here because someone in the past took the step we were taking today, including his own family a couple of generations back. Making this country our home and the home of our family. He also mention about how for most of Americans, or those who immigrated as children, this has been their only home, but for some of us this is a change, and we might feel foreigners, or that we don’t belong, and that feeling, that phase stops today, after a long journey and several years we get to the final destination and we’re now no longer guests or aliens, we belong! just like the rest of the citizens here.
After that he declared us citizens. And we are in fact new Americans. That’s the power of declarations.