Ashley was recently interviewed for the OC Register to talk about her work for the Big Brothers Big Sister organization she volunteers for. Her little sister’s name is Jasmine, and their article was just posted here.
BTW, the reason she’s in a cow costume is because they met up for Halloween:
I’m so proud of her for doing this program!
Well, I’m now a US citizen 
I can’t tell you how relieved I am it’s all over. To some that may sound strange. Rather than being excited about my new citizenship, I’m more excited that the process is over. Well, if you’ve had a green card for 11 years and then your naturalization process has been hampered at almost every scheduling for an appointment because either a letter doesn’t get sent out in time or it’s an impossible time to show up anyway, you too would be happy!
There are some great things about having US citizenship, in addition to belonging to the US. One of them is, of course, travel. No more visas! Well, ok, some visas. Know that trip to Tijuana everyone keeps talkin’ about? Well, sign me up, ’cause I can now leave and come back!
For me, another great benefit of being a citizen is that I now have an official “you can stay here as long as you like” invitation. Why is that so important to me you ask? Well, I’ve lived in the US since fall of 1998. Though I love living here and feel like this is my home, I’ve always felt like I need to prove why I deserve to live here. It’s not that anyone or anything has ever made me feel this way, it’s just a feeling of being an “outsider.”
Truth be told, whenever I see someone in law enforcement, I immediately get this i’m-guilty-until-proven-innocent feeling. I know it sounds crazy. I guess it’s some irrational fear that you can get locked up or deported for any old reason, or not having control over what happens to you. I’m sure others may have a fear-of-authority, but being a visitor to a country makes it worse. I’ve joked to family and friends like “hahAA! You can’t deport me anymore!”, but I’m really hoping that when I receive my US passport next week I’ll no longer feel this ‘deportaphobia’ anymore.
Well, I didn’t mean to write so much about me worrying about getting deported. But, I don’t think I’ve ever put this phobia of mine down in words, so that feels good. I’d be interested to know if you’ve ever felt afraid of a law enforcement officer, immigrations official, etc.
I had a great conversation with Shaista Puphu on Google Talk today! I was surpised at how clear the audio was, and that there was almost no lag at all (like you get when dialing from a phone)
To all family and friends,
Eid Mubarak! I know that Ashley and I are far from many of you, and we wanted you all to know that you are in our thoughts today.
I thought a great way for Ashley and I to keep everyone informed of what’s happening in our lives is to start a blog (What’s a blog?). We hope to be updating this site regularly with things that are relevant to us. Feel free to comment on what Ashley and I post, we would love to hear from you. You can leave comments for a post by clicking below the post where it says ‘# of comments’ and writing a response.
