A number of years ago, I guess back around 1999, I became aware of a certain awesome thing that allowed me to claim Irish citizenship. You see my grandmother was born in Ireland, and as the grandchild of an Irish-born citizen, I am entitled to having my name entered into the Book of Births, and therefore to an Irish passport as well.
The problem with this: in 2001 when I actually got all the documents rounded up and ready for action, the US would not allow my claiming of dual citizenship… I would have to renounce my US citizenship in order to claim Irish. And I was 28 at the time… just realizing the importance of stepping lightly and thinking about the consequences of one’s actions, so I thought it best to table the citizenship discussion for now. Since what I really want to do was just defect in a grand show of “kiss my ass ‘Murica!!”. Ahhh, maturity.
So instead I moved onto a boat and sailed several thousand miles down the Left Coast. Like I said: Maturity.
=)
Now it’s 2017 and I’ve lived abroad for about 2 1/2 years already. Someone left the gate open and I’ve seen a bunch of things I’m not supposed to see from the other side of the wall which is yet to be a reality but is actually already quite a thing.
And I have zero desire to change this “living abroad”. I have zero desire to go back to any of what is on the other side of that imagined yet very real wall.
It’s not just because of Twitler’s latest actions with respect to health care, but it was indeed the catalyst that made me google up some results this evening on claiming Irish citizenship by birthright. As I’d heard over the years, I can in fact claim both citizenships now, and I can carry both passports, which is great because I’ve never been one for seeing borders drawn by men as something worth respecting… more as a general guideline.
I’m a Citizen of the World, and I don’t really care where you think your walls should go.
I hope more of us start looking into our heritage, looking into where we come from, looking at how we can honor that, and make it part of our day-to-day. We are people before we are any sort of nationality.
You can’t put me in a box with a pre-existing condition. Please believe I will bust out of it.
I hope we all will, in one way or another.
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