I Got Approved to Become a U.S. Citizen. Would you?

On December 18, 2005, my plane landed at Dulles International Airport.

On February 23, 2011, I became a U.S. Citizen.

When we moved to this country, it was because my parents wanted me and my brother to have better opportunities for education.  They wanted us to succeed and my dad worked 18 hour days to make sure that we had everything we needed. A roof over our heads, food on our table and the ability to go after the opportunities as we choose. For me, at first, it was law school. And then, I decided to move forward with Journalism.

Because of our move to the U.S., I was able to choose my own path, make my own mistakes and redefine the path as I needed.

Ironically, as much as we wanted to get our U.S. Citizenship a few years ago, the application fee was the only thing that delayed the process.

It was this past year when my dad and I decided we would save up, and send in our application to become U.S. Citizens after being greencard-holders over the past decade.

We were fortunate enough to have our interview on the same day, though our Oath ceremonies were a couple of hours apart.

The actual day was long and grueling, simply because of the wait for our interviews & the ceremony once we were approved.  Once our interview was over, we were given an envelope & told to go to the waiting room for the ceremony.

In our envelope:

During the Oath ceremony, the officers conducting the ceremony first reviewed the rules, and then asked us to stand up as our country of birth was called.  Once we were all standing, we represented the ‘many’, and after the ceremony was over, we were all ‘one’ as U.S. Citizens.

Following the pledges (First the Oath of Citizenship & then the Pledge of Allegiance), we stood for the national anthem, followed by a message from President Obama.

I may have shed a tear or two. Turkey will always be home to me and I am very proud to be a Turkish-American.

The final step was actually receiving my Certificate of Naturalization.

Oh hai, I'm a Citizen

If you had to take the U.S. Citizenship test today, could you pass? Take the quiz to find out.  Remember that you have to get 6 out of 10 correct, and it is not multiple choice during the actual interview.

[QUIZZIN 1]

If you are in DC, come celebrate my Citizenship/Birfday with me on March 26!

You Probably Won’t Like Me

There’s one thing you should know about me: You probably won’t like me.

The odds are, when we meet, your first impression of me will be that I’m either obnoxious (because I like to laugh and I get chatty when I’m nervous) or a bitch (because I get shy and quiet when I’m nervous). Once we make it past the first impression, you’ll give me a shot because I am a nice person.

If we meet over social media, you might find me too chatty because I use my networks to pass on information.  If you don’t find me too chatty, you may be offended by my random jokes because I like to laugh. I also like to cheer up the people around me so maybe I’m just trying to brighten up your day.

You probably won’t like me because you’ll think I’m fake.  The thing about me is that I don’t always have a filter so if I have been thinking about you, I’ll send you an email just to let you know that. Just because you crossed my mind. Maybe I read a blog of yours that really stood out to me. Maybe we don’t talk all the time but I’ll still let you know that you touched me in some way. The chances are you’ll find me overly nice and assume that I’m being fake. “No one can be that nice.”

When we become friends, you might not like me because I can be a tad flaky when it comes to replying to e-mails. I let the world overwhelm me and want to be there for everyone so I spread myself too thin and then let everyone down. (I’m working on this, I promise.)

When you read this blog, you might not like me because I do my best to stay positive despite life dragging me on my face at times. You may not like me because I try to see the silver lining.

You might not like me because I’m not the typical girl. My best friends are scattered all over the country so I don’t have the luxury of being able to have a girl’s night on a short notice. I don’t have weekly traditions because my best friend is on the other side of the country. I don’t gush over the same things and most of the time, my tolerance for the unnecessary is low. I don’t judge but I can’t participate.  I have tried. I’m still trying but I’m about to turn 26 and let me tell you: Finding girlfriends that you bond with in a short period of time is incredibly rare when you’re at this point in your life. There are days it gets me down and I might be depressed for a day or 7.  You definitely won’t like me then.

I’m pretty sure you don’t like me right now because when I do blog, I tend to get a little wordy.

Once you realize and accept the fact that you probably won’t like me, it’s up to you to stick to it. There are a lot of people who don’t like me, but the ones who do? They’re the ones who deserve my time so if you don’t like me, do us both a favor.

Don’t bother faking & move on.

“You spend so much of your life basing yourself on what you think other people think of you. Then you realize that maybe one of the purposes of life is not to care.” –Dustin Hoffman

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