Monday, April 26, 2010

She was an American girl

Today is the eighteenth anniversary of my arrival in the United States. If my American experience were a person, she'd be a full adult today! :D And indeed, I'm finally beginning to feel like an American adult. I'm stuck here now, I've got a job (again - the Census Bureau called me up for the second phase on Saturday), and I can do all the things most adult Americans do (except run for president).

America has been good to me, even though there are some horrible things about it: the job market, the war, the imperialistic past and present, racism, how the entire world hates on you when you're overseas... Still, it's offered a home and a good life for my mother and me even though she never even wanted to go to America before the divorce, a decent education (yay for graduating before Cal Grants were cut!) and a passport that will take you almost anywhere in the world without the rest of that bureaucratic red tape (example: going to Japan as a Filipino, even for like a day, results in reams of paperwork; this might have more to do with illegal immigration and Japanese xenophobia more than anything, though). Oh, and as said before, I have a government job again (but only for a few weeks). Whatever gets me through the month, I guess.

I honestly liked growing up American - before September 11 and the war and the entire Bush administration I was proud, happy and grateful for the chance to have come here. I still am happy and grateful to have reached America, but the war (and just growing up in general) has made me a little cynical about this country. The stereotype of America as the fat, blond, hostile, arrogant cowboy the cute chibi from Hetalia notwithstanding sort of makes me hate being from America, but compared to the average Philippine experience I can hardly complain. I guess it's up to me to prove the stereotypes wrong - whether conversing with foreigners or fellow residents - and show what a real American woman is nervy, brunette, only slightly overweight, gracious and polite, belligerent only when directly provoked and/or cut off on the freeway