Do you remember your first 4th of July?

I know someone who will this year.

This past week, I had the rare opportunity to attend a swearing-in ceremony for one of my co-workers who recently became an American citizen. It was a very exciting day - our entire department traveled to Memorial Auditorium and as we waited for the ceremony to begin, listened to the speaker go through each country represented that day and how many people from those countries were being sworn in. The countries with the most amount of people being sworn in were China, India and the biggest one we heard, Mexico, with 548 people being sworn in as citizens. The judge eventually arrived and as the ceremony progressed, all 1900 people stood and raised their right hands, vowing to stand up for this country if they were ever needed and pledging their allegiance. Once the swearing in was complete, everyone clapped and cheered, and some cried. It was quite an emotional day, but so wonderful at the same time. I never really thought about how lucky we really are, with all of our freedoms, until that day - these people came from all over the world to find a better life for themselves and their families, and this was the day that they were finally able to call themselves citizens. You couldn't help but feel happiness for every single one of them.

And we were most excited for Cam, who I'm sure will always remember this 4th of July: her first one as an American citizen.

After this week, I won't be taking my citizenship for granted anymore.