Recent developments in US politics... naturalized citizens like me might be at risk...
So... anyways... it got me thinking a lot...
Like... there's this alternate timelime where I never got to learned English... cuz the only reason I know this language is cuz I came to the US.
This language has been part of my identity since... like most of the life I remember...
So I have aunts and cousins in China that are still on an immigration backlog, and they've been on waitlist for like a decade, they're probably adults now, I think, no idea if they still are considered a dependent to come with the aunts (my mother's sisters) as they are he primary beneficiaries of the visa application, dependents are derivatives.... so if they are over 21, idk if they're still allowed to come to the US, not a lawyer...
but the again, not sure if they will ultimately even decide to come, considering... it's a lot to move countries... I remember feeling anxious when I first got here, and also it's not the 2010s anymore, its 2025, lots has changed, those cousins probably got used to growing up over there...
Okay I sound like I'm rambling...
but my point is, this got me thinking about myself
like... what if I was never here... like... I was there in China all this time...
Who the hell am I?
What is this weird timeline... why am I here?
Like I feel like everytime something happens in life, I'm always gonna obsess about that point in the timeline where the timeline diverges on two different timelines.
Feels so weird to say I'm "American"
It's just a paper that can be revoked at anytime, like when constitutionalism breaks down, like... glances at the news
Do you think violence is a proper solution to most problems? Do you think America/the West at large has had a net positive impact in the world and uses its superior firepower for peacekeeping reasons? Do you believe in anything in earnest? You might be more American than you think! Lol
Tbh, America, like the rest of Western societies, is a tiered society with Western Europeans at the top, other Europeans in second place, and then it goes down from lighter skin to darker skin. Perhaps this is just a reminder of that reality but if you don't have some Anglo-Saxon/general Germanic ancestry, you're a second class citizen in an ethnonationalist empire. Still American, just not, you know, "American American" but one with a hyphen, to denote your outgroup status.
American Revolution
辛亥革命 Xinhai Revolution
抗日戰爭 War of Resistance against Japanese Imperialism
Operation Overlord / D-Day
French Revolution
need more?
That's the part you decided to reply to? 😅 Don't worry then, you're more American than you're not!