Personal Narrative: I Am An American Citizen

After five years, here I am, holding a blue passport and can finally say that I am an American citizen. Can a young immigrant possibly feel any responsibility towards a country that she only became familiar with for five years? The answer is yes, especially coming from a person who lived eleven years of her life in a less developed country and witnessed poverty at a very young age. I loved my country, the Philippines, and I still do, but just like the two different types of love that I have developed for my mother and father, I also came to love the United States along with its culture and diversity.

The United States has provided my family and I many opportunities and so I believe that being a good citizen is giving back to the land that helped me become the person that I am today. The government allocate a large of portion of the taxes paid by the people to public education and by being a diligent student, I’m able to take full advantage of this privilege. I try to be a model student so that I can be successful in the future and bring about change in this country in hopes of making it better for the upcoming
I was privileged enough to be a part of a program in my high school that encouraged participating in volunteer work for both the community and school. For the past 3 years of my high school career, I was able to volunteer at neighborhood events hosted by a recreational center to a larger scale event like the Little Feet Meet hosted by Old Dominion University, where a Special Olympics is organized for elementary students across Norfolk who have mental and physical disabilities. By volunteering to these type of events, I realized that one of the fundamental aspects of being a good citizen is helping provide an environment in which everyone can feel free and