U ~ Understanding the Big Picture

These are the continuing adventures of a Swedish immigrant during her first year as an American. She boldly went where she'd never gone before...please come along on Adventures in America.

At some point, I began to realize I was no longer a Swedish girl.  I was a half-Swedish, half-American girl, living in America, and though Farmor & Farfar had done their best to make sure that SHOULD we return, we'd fit right in, I was more an American than a Swede. 

One of their major gifts to both of us girls was that we went to confirmation camp, the ceremony, and the wondrous party at their house after-wards with all the expensive gifts. Think Bat Mitzah. I've been a Christian since age 9, but in Sweden, tradition strongly "dictates" that all kids be exposed to the gospel at age 14 and be "confirmed". 

I also began to understand that though The Swede probably could have gotten transferred to Volvo in Sweden, being as how he was Swedish and all, he didn't really want to.  He'd been fascinated with this country for a long time, he was here.  He liked it here  We were settled.  We were staying.

This realization didn't happen all at once, it was such a gradual process, comparable to the proverbial frog being boiled: put him in a pot with cold water, turn on the heat.  He won't notice as the water slowly heats up until he's in big trouble.  

Of course, staying in America wasn't big trouble - what I'm trying to say is that becoming American was such a gradual process I didn't notice it.  I mean, there I was 14, at confirmation camp, thinking, "Oh good, when we move back to Sweden, I won't have to explain why I'm not confirmed." It was that big a deal. When I found myself back there two years later when Swissie was confirmed and one of the girls, Ann (her real name, for once), whom I'd met when I was a "confirmand" and I were the free-time leaders, I still had that thought in my head, especially as I began to meet some boys. 

Now that was a fun job.  We organized whole group activities, like capture the flag and red rover which I taught them.  We played dodgeball, which they knew about. We did NOT play kickball.  We took them on canoe trips.  We got our canoe tipped...we were popular.  Just a bit older, but off-limits from the campers.  Though not off limits from the groundskeeper, Daniel, who had a best friend who hung out with him a LOT, also named Daniel.  I'm not kidding, it's a popular name.

Ann and I and The Daniels would stay up late and sneak around the property.  The problem was, she and I conveniently each liked a different Daniel.  Inconveniently, that was the opposite of who The Daniels liked.  Sigh.

Nothing came of that summer attempt at romance except one stolen kiss from the wrong Daniel, who really didn't take the news that I liked the OTHER Daniel very well.  He stormed off and I didn't see him for two days.

Coming "home", I celebrated my 16th birthday.  We'd been here 7 years.  I was in high school.  It was then that it really sank in.  How in the world would I transfer to a Swedish high school?  No problem, it never came up.

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What did you enjoy about the Challenge? It's Reflections Post time again.

• What could we do better next year?
• What issues did you encounter? (Word verification, unable to comment, long posts, etc.)
• Did you encounter many non-participants? (With help from our minions, we tried really hard to clean the list this year.)
• Theme or no theme – what seemed to work better? Did you find any great themes?
• Did you have fun and will you participate again next year?

Your Reflections can be posted anytime from May 3 through May 10. The Linky List (which will be at the A-Z Blog) will go live May 3 and we ask you to add the link to your post, not your website, once you have posted. The Challenge hosts read every one so we know where to improve for next year.