Becoming American — Reflections on my journey to becoming the naturalized U.S. citizen I am today

Immigration is so common it might seem banal, but it profoundly changes you as a person. It changes your identity, how you relate to your new home, and your old one.

After witnessing the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, the pandemic, the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, and the national reckoning and protests following George Floyd’s murder, I became a U.S. citizen. I started 2021 as a Sino-Mauritian-Canadian and ended it with “American” added to the mix. I’ve since…