Citizenship

My appointment was scheduled at 9:00 AM and I was at the waiting room 20 minutes earlier. My name was called at 8:50 AM (so be there ahead of time). The Immigration Officer was a friendly lady who sped through the whole procedure which was finished in about 9 minutes. I expected more questions and was greatly surprised to realize that it usually takes me longer time standing in line to pay for groceries at WalMart than what it took me to pass the citizenship interview. Overall, I would give high marks to my naturalization process. The only awkward moment was when I said that I wanted to drop my maternal last name for the citizenship certificate, but she insisted that I had to keep it because that was the way my name appeared on my birth certificate. All the USCIS guides on the matter say that the interview is the time when you can change your name, but I was not about to start arguing and proving the Officer wrong at a moment when she had power over my future. I would say that from the moment that I applied for a visa to come to the U.S. to my oath ceremony were fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. But none of the worst-case-scenarios that I used to play in my head came true. Now, that anxiety is over and I feel with the same rights and privileges as the descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims.