I went to my first-ever baseball game a few weeks ago. If a baseball game is a great American experience, I got the full taste of it there, but not for the baseball.All was casual and jovial when we arrived at the field. Families were filing in, children were playing in the play area, laughing and giggling. While we were chatting with hubby’s co-workers, I was also attempting to take in this baseball experience. When it came time to start the game, the announcer asked us to stand for the anthem. We turned to the flag and a singer began singing. It was the first time I heard a live performance of the anthem since my naturalization four months ago.
After my interview and approval of my naturalization application, I stopped by my former workplace, which was nearby, to visit with my former co-workers. One of them told me that her mother was a naturalized citizen from England, and that her mother would cry every time she heard the anthem after becoming an American. As I listened, I wondered if the same would happen to me.
At the Oath Ceremony where I became an American citizen, a singer performed the anthem at the very beginning. Since it was before my oath, I was not particularly emotional about it. But as the ceremony went on, as I took the oath, as I heard the President speak, I remembered my former co-worker’s words. The Star-Spangled Banner would now be my anthem too.
I have been hearing the anthem on TV occasionally since the Ceremony. The baseball game took place during the Olympic Games, and of course, I had celebrated my first Fourth of July as American. However, at the baseball game, looking at the flag, putting my hand over my heart and listening to the anthem, it became a far more emotional experience that it quickly overrode the casualness of a sports game. My vision became blurry. I did not cry, but I felt what my former co-worker's mother felt.
