Mom took her oath and became a naturalized US citizen on November 30, Friday. Congrats, mom!

She is the last one. Mine took place about three years ago. I went ahead and did it because my green card (aka permanent resident or “alien” registration card — I’m not sure why they call it that, it sounds so negative) was about to expire. I didn’t want to expire on me so I couldn’t wait on mom and dad any longer. Dad and Jen were both naturalized last year. Their green cards actually expired on them.

Mom’s green card had a later expiration date because she lost her purse several years ago and had to renew everything. Therefore, her green card ended up with a later expiration date than mine and Jen’s. Our entire family is now naturalized. Woot! Woot!

I haven’t found a huge advantage to being naturalized other than we now have the right to vote and we won’t have to pay for a green card renewal every few years. In the long run, being a US citizen is more cost effective.

Some people wouldn’t dare consider pledging to another country. They would maintain their original citizenship or at the very least maintain dual citizenship. Even though we are all naturalized Americans now, we haven’t forsaken the Philippines. I love my home country and will forever call it my home (although in most of my online profiles — e.g. Facebook, MySpace, etc. — I refer to Wichita as my hometown). We are not unpatriotic to our country of origin. We are merely pragmatic.

I suppose we have assimilated more than we realize. Pragmatism is very American. I’m proud to be one, and I’m happy that my mom is now one too. Congrats!

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