Having survived the paperwork, biometrics and interviews, we were now ready to take The Oath!
As we waited and waited in the huge, very crowded, oak-paneled room on the top floor of the District Court House, my initial excitement was giving way to school-assembly phobia (which was all the more acute for not being allowed to have my phone to distract myself). I sincerely hoped that flu season hadn’t kicked in yet. I passed the time by goofing around with my Green Card, tipping it back and forth to make the rainbow-colored Lady Liberty on the front appear and disappear. That is, until they asked us to please turn them in…
Once we had been given our packets and were reseated, the judge entered and took her place at the front of the room. She took a moment to take a good look at all of us, smiling at us as proudly as if she were the Dean at a college graduation ceremony.
The Assistant DA then introduced us, one by one, stating our names and countries of origin: Ethiopia, Mali, El Salvador, Mexico, Jamaica, Vietnam, India, Egypt, Syria, Germany, Czech Republic, (and two people from Canada of course)…. I was overwhelmed by what an incredibly diverse group we were, all united by this one special event.
However, while we were reciting the oath, it was all I could do not to disrupt the ceremony with a fit of the “church giggles”, because the Grandpa a couple of rows behind us kept reciting his lines two beats behind everyone else. Fortunately, I kept it together.
As American as Korean BBQ Tacos!
Then the judge made a heartfelt speech, encouraging us to bring the best of where we’ve come from, and “it will become as much a part of this country as apple pie”. It was a truly beautiful sentiment, but for me for some reason it triggered a memory of a Korean BBQ Taco truck. (It must have been the “pie” reference and the fact that I hadn’t had lunch yet.)
As we filed out of the room with our brand new citizenship certificates in hand, we were greeted by DAR volunteers handing out voter registration info. I proudly took one and declared “Yay! I can vote!!!”, much to the amusement of the volunteers.
And then, the very first thing my husband and I did as new American citizens, was to head straight to the nearest Irish pub to celebrate…
As American as Irish beer!
