Becoming The People

Tomorrow morning I finally get to have my US Citizenship Interview and Test. It was supposed to happen last March but with the pandemic happening it got postponed and rescheduled to tomorrow. Nine years later I am finally going to be a US Citizen. I have so many feelings about this whole thing especially in this social and political climate. I don't think it is any coincidence that this is all happening now, in my life and outside. I have been going through this journey of learning how to love myself which includes learning to love my heritage and finding the importance in it.

It's important that I wasn't born in this country. It's important that I had a totally different upbringing. It's important that I remember the Filipino culture and celebrate it. It's important that I am an immigrant. My story is important. 

I will be honest though, that while being a US Citizen is something I have been waiting for, the new revelations about loving my own country have caused some conflict in me. I have to fully give up all loyalties to the Philippines when I become a US Citizen (I can apply for Dual Citizenship later), and there is a huge part of me that feels like I am turning my back on my home country and my heritage. Right now with all the political turmoil happening in the US and in the Philippines, I have felt like I have needed to choose which fight I needed to fight for. I am in the US so it's important for me to fight and be vocal about Black Lives Matter, but not speaking up about the Anti Terror Bill in the Philippines feels like I am betraying my homeland. 

I know I am called to be in the US for now. Especially for now. Even though I want so much to be out in the nations, I know that God has placed me here for such a time as this - even though it feels like I am turning my back on the Philippines by becoming a US Citizen. 

I am also not the biggest fan of the current state of the United States, especially the government so that feels really strange - to become a Citizen of a country whose form of government you don't really agree with. But I think this is why I am so excited to be a citizen, so that my voice will finally matter and I can actually become a part of change for the better. The biggest thing I am excited about is getting to vote in November. 

I will use my citizenship to good use. I will use my voice to work for progress and change, for freedom, liberty, and justice for all.