The citizenship ceremony was held tonight at the City of Melville townhall, and Paul and my mom were there with me. It was a very streamlined and cosy affair considering there were over 60 new citizens there along with their guests. We took turns going up to the front of the room to say our pledges and to receive our certificates of citizenship.

As Mayor Katherine Jackson handed us our certificates, she stopped and spoke with each one of us which I thought was nice, even though it was probably a formality. I heard the stories of the people who went up with me as the mayor talked to them - one of the ladies have been in Australia for 37 years and only just decided to take up citizenship; another lady from China liked Australia as a place for bringing up her children.

There were Australian children there whose parents only just became citizens themselves, and there were quite a few families becoming citizens together as a family. I thought that I wouldn’t feel anything but as I did my pledge and watched others did theirs, I began to have an involuntary smile on my face. I laughed when an English guy yelled out “Woohoo!” when the mayor congratulated the batch of people he was pledging with.

Ooi Ooi Ooi. :)

Reading my pledge at the citizenship ceremony
That’s me on the far right

With mom, Paul and Mayor Jackson at the citizenship ceremony