Dual

Friends, it's happened. Fifteen years, countless money spent, visa applications and forms completed, patient queueing (the ultimate British sport), and it's official. I am a dual citizen! 

It usually doesn't take this long. But I got lost somewhere in the quagmire of bureaucracy and a brief stint in China and I wouldn't change that experience for the world. Student visa to graduate visa to shortage area visa to indefinite leave to remain to citizenship, here we are. A British-American dual citizen. 

With Brexit, the passport comes with fewer perks than it used to hold. Freedom of movement across the EU is a thing of the past. The French disdain towards the British now is open and comically hostile. 

But I won't let that sully the pomp and ceremony that is a citizenship ceremony in a pandemic. Where you're allowed to bring one other masked adult to the local Town Hall to swear your allegiance to Queen and Country, via religious or secular oath. 

Where a man with a Portuguese sounding name and a South African sounding accent manages to be excited in running a ceremony he's done countless times over the year, proven by the fact that three of your close friends know THAT guy and his flag schtick.

Covid may have prevented the singing of the National Anthem but that didn't stop me from humming 'My Country Tis of Thee' in my head because America shamelessly stole that tune off of its mother country.

And when you stand up, read the oath, take a picture in front of the queen's picture, it's all a little magical for just a moment. When I moved to the UK fifteen years ago, I never considered where this journey would lead me. I was never looking at the big picture; there's no way I could have imagined how the years have panned out. Master's degree, marathons, man with kidney problems, an often-ridiculous career path, friendships that have stood the test of time.

Yet here we are. A girl, standing in front of some flags and a lady in a crown swearing to be true to another red, white and blue.

 

Now I can legally travel to Cuba. Totally worth the long game.