Blessings Blog

Today I'm thankful for having gotten to spend some good time with my parents lately - it worked out so perfectly to drive up to the Cities for folk group practice to sing with my papa on his birthday, to be followed by my baked birthday present and basement ping-pong.

I'm thankful to have money for gas to make a couple trips up to the Cities recently, which has been rare in the past, but I got to get to know one of my new housemates a little better by driving her to the airport on Friday afternoon, and I was also able to pop up to the Cities on Saturday, mainly for a chill folk group gig at night and then other adventures got added in to the first half of the day.

I'm thankful for intentionally meeting up with one of my fellow Carleton alums and randomly running into a couple other alums at the ILCM's (Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota) Citizenship Day event. It was great to catch up and spend that time watching a naturalization ceremony of over 50 people from 38 different countries with my friend who is a son of naturalized immigrants himself. I'm thankful for the free lunch and the choices of Venezuelan or Jamaican - chicken-avocado arepas all the way! And I'm thankful for the chance to hear Keith Ellison speak on the importance of individual duty as citizens to contribute to our communities and to our political system so that the system serves the people. He also affirmed how vital immigrants are to this land, making our society stronger. and the presiding judge also gave great remarks following the oath in which these new citizens of the U.S. renounced allegiance to their prior countries, emphasizing how that does not mean they must renounce everything from their homeland, but share their customs and culture with the rest of us so we all learn from each other. It was an important reminder for the rest of us who were naturalized citizens or born as such - a reminder of our privilege, as well as our responsibility to work for our communities and to leave this world better in our wake. 

I'm thankful that I had the rest of the afternoon free to meet my dad and go to Pride in Minneapolis to celebrate love. I try to be a straight ally the best I can, and I'm so thankful my parents are in the same boat.

And I'm thankful for late-night silly dancing, conversation, and stargazing. Nothing like soaking up the summer. My only request is that mosquitoes lay off of soaking up my blood a little bit. I kind of need that to live, but I'll survive, thank goodness.