rebirth of the blog

I’m home!

What started as a travel blog…

Lack of a consistent schedule, lack of a permanent keyboard, lack of will, lack of… the excuses could fly from my mouth without end for why I have not written in months. Today, an ounce of motivation was found, and the heavy, heavy computer has been lifted from its resting point and opened, charged. This blog cannot become an abandoned side quest before it has begun!!

The priorities of my time home are beginning to settle as my second week back begins. 

In place of the daily hustle of finding a bed to sleep in and mapping my future travel route, I am researching credit cards, deep-cleaning my yoga mat, and squeezing in time for the creative ventures that are so often swept under the rug of my existence. With stability and time comes life to admin, money to make, and projects to complete. Who knew?

One particular project is taking shape as a potential turning point: it could allow me to explore the world in a different light. With a shiny, new passport.

Can’t they just say yes?

This process has been on my mind for a while, before the 2022 legislation changes even made me eligible for Citizenship by Descent through my grandma in Slovakia. With the world of free and reduced education and healthcare almost at my fingertips, including the ability to easily work and live throughout most of Europe, it is hard to contain the excitement that this potential brings. As a member of the European Union, all Slovak citizens are granted rights that, to me, seem both foreign and freeing. 

The road to citizenship will surely not be quick and easy, as I am quickly learning, but claiming citizenship by descent allows a couple boxes to be skipped. Moving to Slovakia, nor intention to do so, is not a requirement; only a couple hundred dollars to throw at the right people (legally, hey). The requirements and specifics of the application are overwhelming, especially to someone with no prior knowledge of the realm: who am I supposed to throw money at, and in what order? Although the procedure does not guarantee citizenship, a positive answer would be well worth the return to the states (if rejected, please throw money back to sender).

SOS: The search and rescue

Speaking of necessary documents… Upon my return home, I discovered that the documents we had found so far– a Slovak birth certificate– would not prove the citizenship of my grandma. Defeated, I questioned how any relevant papers could have survived her early-in-life escape to the United State when her otherwise important papers– her naturalization documents– evaded us multiple times.

I thought back to October in Romania when I dedicated a week to setting up my blog and planning my future. The question I kept coming back to was, will I come home for Christmas? Among myriad reasons for returning to the US was this application: I could start the process this year to set myself up well for the future. It felt so certain then, how could we be missing the key element?

The ten bins of my grandparent’s papers stored in my parent’s attic sat untouched, whispering my name. When finally I climbed those stairs, I was summoned to an interesting array of papers: a combination of my grandfather’s, who I never had the chance to meet, and my grandmother’s. Legend has it that my grandpa was an important and recognized figure in his field. I selected the first box and (respectfully) tore through correspondence in English, Slovak, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and French… It is no secret now where I got my knack for languages from.

These discoveries felt like clues to a bigger picture: who was my grandfather? What was he discussing with the embassies of countries across the world? Why, as a medical librarian, was he named miembro honorario (honorable member) by the president of Colombia?

This mystery remains in the air because after flipping through a few more of his letters, something stole my attention: I saw a photo of a young woman attached to an unassuming paper. The signature under the photo was clearly my grandmother’s pre-Americanized name. As soon as I could open my phone, I translated the other side from Slovak, and saw the word “passport.”

My eyes widened in slight shock: did I really just find the missing piece? And in less than an hour? The show was back on. In the future lay plenty of obstacles just like this, found beside the ways of overcoming them. Inshallah 

The end. Or… the beginning?

For now that is all of the bureaucratic proceedings I will subject you to. Next time I hope to share more stories from my traveling journey. For the good of the people!

I leave you now with the list of my priorities, or what my time at home will involve. 

Priorities (what my time at home will involve):

1. Family time, holiday celebrations
2. Working, and a lot! Two jobs for the non-working friend Becca 🙂 
3. Creative endeavors: Guitar? Paint? Pencil? Spatula? What will she pick up?
   • (Hopefully the keyboard, and more often)
4. Slovak citizenship project
5. Rock climbing & yoga, etc: Stay active and build muscle!
6. Start teaching languages, convert into an online/travel money-maker later
7. See friends! Plan some out-of-Toledo endeavors. Who wants a visit?

See you next Sunday. Thanks for reading!