Read the first part of this story here: I Got Stuck In A Foreign Country Because They Didn't Consider Me An American Citizen
"Are you an American citizen?", was the only thing that I had been hearing for the last hours of my life. This lady would not get off my back about me and my sister's mistake. I already felt like an idiot and I didn't need any more people making me feel bad. After what felt like forever, they finally let us go and we ran onto our flight, being the last ones on the plane before they shut the doors for good. It felt like we dodged another obstacle but there was one hurdle left: entering the U.S.
My sister and I landed in Washington D.C. and we never felt so afraid. We were not sure what was going to happen to us, whether we were going to be deported or something even worse.
To enter the United States, one has to have proper documentation of why one is there or have a United States passport. The United States has some of the strictest border laws and regulations. Normally, when you are a citizen you have it easy. Though, since we were in the shoes of a "foreigner," we were treated as a terrorist and if we didn't matter.
We only had an hour layover and we spent most of our time staying in line to get a security check, while American citizens just when through like it was nothing for them. When it was our turn, the officer asked another most-asked question of the day, "What's your purpose of coming here into the U.S."?. I responded with shaken confidence, "We live in the U.S.". The officer looked up at us strangely, asking the same thing that everyone that we had encountered that day had said, "Where's your American passport?". We explained our situation for the 10th time that day and eventually, we had to go through a double security check to ensure that we were citizens. Even though our Norwegian passports show we were born in High Point, NC, in the United States. (According to the 14th Amendment, we are automatically considered citizens because we were born in the United States).
We entered an uninviting, completely silent room while an officer was questioning a man and a woman that obviously could not speak or understand English. There was no translator and the officer was threatening to deport these people because they weren't "cooperating". My sister and I shook about the current situation and we couldn't comprehend why these people were being treated like this. When it was our turn, I was shaking while my sister was explaining what had happened. The only words that came out of the officer's mouth were, "Call up your mom so I can talk to her". I thought, this is it, we are goners. Of course, my sister called up our mom but the dumbest thing ever came out of her mouth, "This nice man wants to talk to you". At that moment, I froze what felt like an eternity. After the terrifying call, everything cleared up and we dashed out of the dull room, faster than an Olympic runner. We reached our gate right when everyone was boarding and we were ready for our last flight because we could taste victory, of getting home.
Finally, we arrived home and I was pretty sure I was going to run out of the plane before it even landed. As we exited the plane, collected our luggage, and descended down the escalator we found our mom. She had the biggest smile on face and her arms wide open for us. We ran to her, embracing for a long time and at that moment, I felt so relieved and happy to finally be home. The first thing we told her was, "You should have listened to us". That would be the last time I would never forget my passport ever.
