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It’s been almost 58 years since my parents decided to immigrate to the U.S. for a better future for me. That’s the reason they gave as to why they uprooted our lives in Athens, Greece. I did not like their decision and for years afterward I let them know that I preferred my life in Greece. My parents knew what I didn’t know which was that America was a land of opportunity and I could educate myself and eventually have a better standard of living than in Greece. Well all these years later, they were right and I am happy and grateful they made the decision. I now have the privilege of living 6 months in Greece and six months in the U.S. . There is long story of how I got from a young immigrant child arriving by boat in New York to my retired life now but I won’t get into that now. I just want to thank America for giving this immigrant the opportunity to do something with himself and I want to say Happy 250th Birthday! I’m sure if my parents would say the same if they were alive.
I immigrated here when I was 16. Very grateful to have the opportunity to attend high school in Brooklyn, then college in Chicago area. This is truly a land of opportunitie, and a nation of immigrants. Let’s never forget that, as we continue building a more perfect union. Thank you, America!
Most of us are very thankful immigrants and Proud to be an American. Thanks for the reminder.
Hope you are enjoying the World Cup as much as the millions of foreigners are enjoying America. Thanks to you and others for your hospitality – confirming some of the best things about America, and Americans, too!
Thanks for the post.
I too am a first generation American, whose mom came through Ellis Island just over 100 years ago, July 30, 2025 at the age of 7 months – in the arms of my maternal grandmother – dirt poor, they were sponsored by US relatives to make the trip from Tisinec, Slovakia alone.
We still have the blanket my mom was wrapped in when they approached America on the RMS Berengaria – initially out of Hamburg Germany.
Some of the descendants of family they left behind in Slovakia maintain connections, and they are in a number of European locations and a few in the states, too – including, Tisinec, as well as Bergen, Norway, Warsaw, Poland, and even Cleveland, Ohio.
Last month, we reconnected with the Norway and Warsaw contingent with a trip to Oslo and Bergen, … in additionto singing Ole Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass with an international choir.
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZm4DT7isPf/
For anyone of Norwegian descent reading this, you have a beautiful country with beautiful people. It was my privilege to visit.
My Irish paternal great-grandfather came in the 1850’s and my German maternal great-grandfather came from Germany in the early 1860s.
Like you, Nick, my grateful heart knows no bounds.