American Me

Or, rather, I should be by the end of the day. I take my citizenship exam today. To tell the truth, I am a little nervous. I have not taken a history class since my junior year in high school. AP American History with Ms. Goldblum. Ahh, those were the days… I wrote essays on the viewpoints of historians with respect to the events of American history.

I sang the star spangled banner song last night to completion. Some bars were hummed. The SO tried to help, but I drowned out her voice because I was concentrating. Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics for that.

Washington. Both the president and the capital of the world. Lincoln. Both president and emancipator of slaves. Both executives with cabinets.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Congress makes the laws. The senate and congress legislates. The Supreme Court interprets.

Thirty-seven years old being a Filipino. It's not that hard to give up a citizenship when I hardly visit the Philippines. Some Filipinos have been giving a hard time to Jim Paredes of APO HIKING fame because his family left the Philippines. But he has a great reason to. He wants to follow a religious calling. You can hardly do that in the Philippines specially if it is Buddhism.

I don't see becoming an American as giving up hope in the Philippines either. I just see it as taking care of myself. A new box. I get to experience the world in a different way. I get to converse with new people as an American.

I get a new pretty box. I should reupdate the old box too. Maybe I will make it like a jeepney, with horses stampeding on the hood, curtains shielding the soul from the sun, mud flaps exhorting GOD to protect everyone in the jeep and no one else. I'll take it out for a spin every so often. I wonder if anyone will notice.

As for the American me, hmm, better take some pictures. Maybe I'll get blonde hair.