Being Thankful for what you have

I am feeling frustrated. For two days Karachi has been gripped by violence. Experts are saying that this is a backlash to the attack in Mumbai. I couldn’t go to work today and had to stay home. I remember having to check the weather report before heading out now I check the terror report. “There’s a 50% chance of sporadic gunfire followed by mass rioting later in the day. You might want to throw on some Kevlar.”

At times like these it easy to become cynical. I’d love to bitch and moan about how crappy everything has become. But I won’t. Partly because it does no good and partly because I have plenty to be thankful for. My family, my health, my friends are all reasons to be grateful.

I have another reason to be grateful. I mentioned wanting announce some big news in my previous post. Well here goes. My sister moved back to the US! The timing couldn’t be better. She’s been planning the move for the past year. The biggest hurdle was getting a visa for my brother-in-law. He had to get passed stringent security checks before being issued one. The munchkins are considered to be Americans born abroad and were allowed entry.

We’re all happy for them. My dad managed to get them an apartment in NY, close to our old neighborhood. My sister still remembers everything vividly. “It’s like I never left!” she tells me over the phone. She sends back pictures via email and long lost phrases like “Coney Island”, “corner deli”, “gyros” surface in my mind. I am taken back to summers spent eating Italian ices, skateboarding down steep hills, eating pez candy from a looney tunes dispenser, listening to rap songs on my neighbors boom box, playing Nintendo and watching fireworks on the Fourth of July.

As I hear gunshots from outside my window, my memories are whisked away. To survive the here and now one must focus on the present. The army has been deployed and will eventually bring order. The dead will be forgotten and we will go about our business. But until that time I can be thankful that my nephews have a chance to grow up the way I did. A chance to learn and explore everything that this world has to offer. A chance to dream big and do great things. And so begins a new chapter in The Immigration Experience.