IdEnTItY cRiSIs!!

Just the other day I was writing a paper for my Anthropology class, in which I had to personally define my culture. I decided on the wording "I'm an American citizen who is insanely proud of her British heritage." I decided on that definition because it was the perfect wording for me.

It held for about 5 days.

I've been bugging my Mum for months to call the British consulate to figure out what I needed to do to get my dual citizenship. I was thinking along the lines of take some tests, maybe submit a paper on why I felt I would make a good citizen, possibly identify a legit Cadbury's chocolate bar among some impostor bars...you know, typical citizenship stuff. I was more than happy to do whatever was necessary for me to get that passport! So, you can imagine my surprise when my Mum texted me in class informing me that I had in fact been a citizen of the UK since the day that I was born. I was super stoked! I even told my friend sitting next to me about it because it was so cool! I told my friends who I was texting at the time, and I figured that was that.

Ha. Yeah right.

Here's the deal, I have taken my citizenship here in the US pretty seriously for a 22 year old blond girl. I pride myself on the fact that I could pass the citizenship test with flying colors if I needed to, I vote (and not just that, I vote responsibly ever since that one time that I based my vote on who had the coolest name and I seriously stress about it even now. Lesson learned.), I try and stay informed about the issues facing the country and I'm making choices now so that I can stay informed and be a contributing member of society later in life. So when I started thinking about the fact that I was essentially handed citizenship to a country that I love and hold very dear to my heart, I started thinking about my responsibility to England, and in turn the United Kingdom.

Honestly, I couldn't even tell you who the current PM is over there. I have missed out on 22 years of events, government and cultural experiences! My mind began racing as I started realizing all of the things that I was going to have to learn to even begin to feel right about claiming my citizenship! I immediately went home and found a sample Living in the UK test and took a quick pre-test if you will. 38%. There was no way that was going to cut it, so I printed the questions and answers and set out to study. Step one, check!

What is step two you're asking? Honestly, I'm not totally sure. My OCD has kicked itself into overdrive on this one, and I haven't stopped thinking about step two since about noon today. (Ask my co-workers, it was a confusing day at best in Jamieville.) Here's the thing, I truly believe that every person in a society should be an informed, contributing member. I don't believe in following blindly because everyone else is doing something one way, and I also don't believe that freedom and rights are something that should be taken for granted. Neither is the opportunity to be a true member of any society. Especially where it's almost a gift in my eyes right now. I've always been so so proud of my being English by blood, it's something that I've allowed to define me in many ways, and the thought of being able to maybe one day work to become a legal part of that was something that I've thought about for years. Now that I've found that all of that has technically been a part of my life since the day that I was born, I feel like it's not something I should just be throwing around, and it's made me stop and think about how I'm going to redefine MY culture. 

At what point will I feel comfortable completely embracing being a citizen of the UK? What steps do I have to take to get to that point? Is just studying and memorizing facts and figures enough? Or is this something that's going to take some real world application? Should you be required to live in a country in order to be able to claim your citizenship? What even defines citizenship? Is it a purely technical term that simply refers to the country that you were born in/live in/came from? Probably most importantly, why on EARTH is this causing me so much confusion?

All I truly know for sure is that I am ecstatic about the fact that a piece of me (who knows what piece at the moment) truly belongs to England now and forever officially. How I am going to let this define my life now, remains to be seen. But I've always said that I don't dig the mundane so much, this may just be another way of the universe kicking my butt into gear and making me think outside of the box; and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

I love America AND I love England.
And I love you guys.

Aroha :)