Citizenship

After waiting since 1959, I finally take my oath of ctizenship in 2006. Why the long wait? Well, since the age of 9 have always thought of myself as a Swede living in Canada. I wasn't willing to take an oath to say this wasn't so. But, over the years (many!) it gradually began to dawn on me that I had become a "Canadian". Regardless of where I was born, Canada was the country whose language I spoke, whose values I held, whose history and current affairs I knew, whose fate I cared more about than any other country in the world. It had become time to affirm these facts. So, when I finally took my oath, it was not simply a gesture to obtain the right to vote; it was a confirmation of facts I had been denying. It was time to abandon the idea that living in Canada was simply some kind of extended visit. I wasn't ever going to go "home" ; I am living in my "home".