Civitas

I thought I had a big decision to make when I had to choose between majoring in History or English. (I chose History, by the way).

But now I have an even bigger decision to make: Should I keep my American citizenship, and become a Singapore PR, or should I just keep the Singapore citizenship?

It's like, for quite a while, I could keep on joking about being American and having Singapore citizenship and stuff, and it was so easy to say I would like to be American with Singapore PR. But now that I actually have to make the choice, it's not quite so funny anymore...

If I take my American citizenship, I will retain the rights of an American. I will not require a green card to go and work in the USA, and I can sponsor people to have US citizenship as well. As a PR in Singapore, it's still not so bad, since I will lose out mainly in the elections part, and in buying HDB flats. Which basically means that as long as I marry a Singaporean girl, the HDB thingy shouldn't be too much a problem. But but but, in all probability, I will lose my status as an officer of the SAF, which, while may not be anythign really big, is still, to a certain degree, a source of pride for me.

If I keep my Singaporean citizenship, I will gain the rights of the Singaporean. Adminstratively, it will be a whole lot easier for me, and my uni tuition fees and stuff will all be easily settled. I will be able to travel relatively safer on planes, and I probably have more chance of entering into Afghanistan (not that I'll go there in the near future, or the future, for that matter). But but but... I would be turning my back on my homeland. While I may have lived there for only the first two years of my life, I still feel a connection to the US.

My homeland, or the land I've lived in.

They both mean a lot to me. But I will need to give one up.

Which one?