Becoming an American: A reason to celebrate

This is one of those very rare days in life - a day when everything is working out.

It's a gorgeous September morning, and I am standing in an unending line with about two thousand people waiting to get into the Garland Event Center. I am as happy as a drunk.

This might seem a little unusual considering that such a large number of people in any one place should have the opposite effect, but not today. This is a day of hope and, for so many, a day of victory. Everybody is happy, chatty and almost delirious. Today we become Americans.

People have literally come from all over the world. The ceremony opened with a huge ovation. The voice of the people drowned the Garland mayor's opening greeting as he read the welcome speech.

Most of the people had tears in their eyes as they took the oath of allegiance to serve and protect the U.S.A. The journey seems to have come to an end on this beautiful September morning of my birthday.

For me this journey, which started exactly ten years ago on another birthday, came to a glorious end. It also brought a sense of closure for Irma, a gorgeous young lady I met in line.

We started a conversation and she told me a little about herself.

"This is the greatest day of my life," she said. "I had money back home, but there is so much instability and a sense of hopelessness. America gives you a chance to be whatever you want to be."

As I looked at the emotion on the faces in that huge crowd, the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty seem to come alive.

Decades ago, the nineteenth century poet Emma Lazarus wrote the poem "The New Colossus." She wrote, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

As I looked at the faces in the hall, I began to truly understand those words. Martin, another immigrant- turned-American, said he had no hope in his native home. He was one of those immigrants who came to America the hard way.

For him, citizenship is about respect. He will not trade the freedom America gives for anything else. Though he loves his native home, he said there is too much instability and a sense of hopeless.

"I came to this land and went through all I did to have freedom and now I have it," he said, beaming with gratitude and joy. Martin and this great mass of people have come from all over the world to become Americans.

The entire world was represented in that hall. As weighted down with issues as this nation is right now, there has to be something wholesome about this nation that makes the entire world want to come here.

My favorite talk show hosts, Russ Martin and his buddies, joke about immigrants all the time. They especially laugh at some of the most ridiculous methods immigrants have used to get into this country. What can be more ridiculous than trying to get here in the back seat of a pickup or van floating on the river? My American buddies ask "What's the big deal?" to my excitement on becoming an American.

Being an American is the biggest deal in the world. It is to be celebrated. It does not mean you love your native home any less; it is the fact that you have hope, respect and the choice to live your life without apologies.

What's really weird and scary at this moment and in this great crowd is the voice of this Joseph dude in my head. I hear him like he is standing next to me, saying, "You are born in the wrong neck of the woods; you ought to go live in America."

That was years ago when I did not live here. Joseph was a colleague and an interesting feature writer.

He is one of those brilliant young men which every nation seems to have a few of, even third-world nations. He was usually seen in the newsroom holding court and telling a usually ignorant but enraptured audience how everything in the world was America's fault.

He had this imperialist theory, and there was usually something in the news to ruffle his feathers. I always was the one person to burst his bubble because I always held forth for Uncle Sam. And I knew what I was talking about because I made it my business to know all there was to know about this nation.

I always love the magnanimity and elastic nature of this society. This is the only society that will rave against immigrants but still give them a chance at the end. T

his society gives you a chance like no other society in the world.

It is something of a mystery that my paths effortlessly led me here.

And this morning seven years later, I have no idea how I got here, but as I stand in this cheering crowd of people taking the oath of allegiance to defend these United States of America, it dawns on me that this is where I want to be. I am proud to be an American. I love this nation, and I am going to celebrate it.

- Rosemary Ndikwanu is a North Lake student.