July 20, 2007
"Sometimes I can't believe it when I look up in the mirror"
All Russian female names end in "A". My grandmother was Sarra, her sister Raya. My other grandma was Antonina. My mom is Nina. Her sister is Gyala. So, when people meet me and learn I was born in the Soviet Union they ask "so what is your Russian name?" When I tell them that Karol is my name, in Russian, in English, in whatever language they choose, they are confused.
I tell them the story: My father got permission to leave Russia when my mother was pregnant with me. His mother and aunt were already in America and he had to go, it was the only hope for us all to leave.
Leaving the Soviet Union was unlike leaving most places. You were stripped of your citizenship and told you can never return. You were an enemy, even your friends might shun you. I think that was fine with my father, he was American before he ever set foot here. He was a freedom-loving Capitalist who loved rock&roll, wanted to see the world, practice medicine and raise his family. He wanted me to have an American name, so that when I reached this great country, no one would think of me as different. I would be American, by virtue of my name, almost immediately. He sent my mother a list of American names and she chose Karol. A Russian person may pronounce is Kyeh-ral. Of course, they couldn't know that spelling it with a "K" would mark me as different, but in a good way, I think. It lets me never forget where I was born, that while I'm American, and so blessed to be here, I could've just as easily ended up spending my life in the place my father refers to as "prison" with a name like Masha, Inna, Katya or some variation thereof. It reminds me that I am lucky.
Today is 29 years that I'm in America. Tonight I'll raise a glass with my father and brother (my mother, funny enough, left for Russia yesterday to visit her sister) and I'll be thankful that I got to live my life here. I'll request we go to Tatiana's on the Brighton Beach boardwalk in Brooklyn (the restaurant I wrote about here), so we can be among all the other lucky people who, almost entirely by chance, got to live their lives in this amazing country.
And like most years I take this opportunity to post the picture of me getting my citizenship five years later (the story of why I'm on stage with the judge is here), because, really, could I be more adorable?:
Previous July 20 entries:
Posted by Karol at July 20, 2007 01:37 PM | TrackBackTechnorati Tags: Personal+Blogging
AWWWW!!! You'll always be one of a kind to me, babe, not only because your name starts with a K (which I love about you, btw).
Happy anniversary! This nation is better with you in it.
Posted by: toby at July 20, 2007 02:20 PMHappy Anniversary Karol!!
Posted by: James Young at July 20, 2007 02:40 PMI feel somewhat obligated to say something as a fellow refugee from the Soviet Union, but what? The cute picture is the perfect metaphor for the American way(little smiley girls in pink dresses are cute no matter where they come from or how long they have been in this country). The fact that papa and mama gave you an "American" name so you could fit in says that even they who were ahead of their time and as brave as the grunt who jumps on the grenade, underestimated how wonderful this country is. Big up and respect to the competition, but USA is #1!!!
Posted by: Pheeleepok at July 20, 2007 03:19 PMI'm glad you were able to come to America. People like you make this nation a better place!
Posted by: jamrat at July 20, 2007 03:32 PMYou obviously attended the same brainwashing neo-con citizenship classes that Avi Lewis so skillfully outed Ayaan Hirsi Ali as having attended.
Posted by: eeyore at July 20, 2007 03:33 PMPeople like you make this nation a better place!
Co-sign.
That's a beautiful picture to go with an inspiring anecdote.
Happy anniversary, Karol.
:)
Posted by: Gerard at July 20, 2007 03:52 PMCongratulations on your anniversary. As someone who had the luck to be born here, I am honored to call you and your entire family my fellow citizens.
Posted by: Doug at July 20, 2007 05:52 PMIn Texas, we have a saying:
"I wasn't born here, but I got here as fast as I could."
Happy Anniversary!
Posted by: Shawn at July 20, 2007 06:02 PMOf course, seeing as how you were born here, I guess it's a little different.
Well, at least it sounded good on a Friday afternoon after a tough, tough week.
Still glad to have you here.
Posted by: Shawn at July 20, 2007 06:07 PMKarol, nice to meet you. Congratulations! My family and I too fled the USSR and my mother is a Physician and my father is an Engineer. Unusual, I know. We are here 28 years and couldn't be happier. It's an endless battle convincing some of my friends that we live in the best country in the world. Good luck!
Posted by: Alex at July 20, 2007 06:25 PMProsit!
Posted by: The Sanity Inspector at July 20, 2007 06:45 PMOne of my great friends escaped from Romania under Ceaucescu. He also was a natural American, and a Rock & Roll guitarist, as well as a great mechanic and academic. He said to me once that what pushed him over the edge was the semiotics of our space programs. In his reading, the American program was about exploration, the Soviet about power.
Posted by: Dan Collins at July 20, 2007 07:05 PMRomania was a hellish place under Ceausescu. My father's cousin moved there under his reign, but that was mostly for research purposes since he was a Cold War scholar.
Next to the Stasi the Securitate was probably the worst secret police within the Eastern Bloc.
It's fascinating to look at how rock n'roll, jazz-American popular music in general-played a subversive roll inside of the Iron Curtain.
Posted by: Gerard at July 20, 2007 07:49 PMKarol, congratulations!
Have to ruin your perfect pitch, though: in Russian your name WILL end with an "a", it'll be Karolina.
Besides, many native-born American females have a name with same ending.
Like Natasha!
Of course, seeing as how you were born here, I guess it's a little different.
No, no, I was born there. I got here as fast as I could!
Have to ruin your perfect pitch, though: in Russian your name WILL end with an "a", it'll be Karolina.
Apparently, my mom had to fight to get "Karol" put on my certificate of birth. She was told it wasn't a name and she had to sign something that she wouldn't want to change it back in a few months.
Posted by: Karol at July 21, 2007 11:01 AMEverybody is a little bit American deep down inside. Just most people live in places where they won't let them admit it.
Karol you should be a civics teacher. We have plenty of kids who don't realise how lucky they are. Your stories could help with that.
Oh man, that sarcastic comment above just reminded of this interview:
You're watching that interview, not believing a putative news anchor can be that retarded-I mean, he makes Anderson Cooper look like Fred Friendly-but then you realize he's married to Naomi Klein and....
Well, you get the picture.
Posted by: Gerard at July 21, 2007 06:49 PMAs I tell my students in Intro Am Govt, there are lots of Americans out there in the world, it's just that some of them haven't gotten here yet.
Welcome home to you and your family.
Posted by: JorgXMcKie at July 21, 2007 07:14 PMCongratulations! My family fled a little later - in 1989. Also, I'ld like to add that in addition to stripping you of your citizenship, you were also severely limited to the amount of money you could take with you.
Posted by: Stan LS at July 22, 2007 09:28 AM29 years? yeah, its about time you start wrapping things up.
Posted by: Not Dawn Summers at July 23, 2007 10:25 AMOutstanding!
This utterly makes my day... thank you very much for sharing, Karol.
Posted by: Foxfier at July 28, 2007 01:23 PMjackass wrote, "You obviously attended the same brainwashing neo-con citizenship classes that Avi Lewis so skillfully outed Ayaan Hirsi Ali as having attended."
I guess by "skillfully outed" you mean "sneered at like an adolescent and showed himself to be as much of a jackass as I am".
Posted by: Jim C. at July 28, 2007 08:52 PM
