The Unwitting Ambassador

When my family and I moved to the US from the UK, one element of being an immigrant that I didn’t expect was the weird position that is thrust upon you as a de facto ambassador of your adopted country to all your friends and family back home. Particularly as one of the most privileged types of immigrants — one who had the choice to move rather than having to flee in fear or mortal danger — that choice is often indirectly (and sometimes very directly, hi dad!) called into question by folks back in the UK.

A year into our stay here, back in 2016, we reflected on the differences we’d observed around us and within ourselves during those first 12 months. The two that stuck with me, that are ingrained in the culture to the point that may make it hard to observe from within, are the determined bias towards optimism and confidence. My family’s tendency for awkward bashfulness around ambition transformed to you *can* do this, this *is* possible, never stop dreaming or, to take Amanda Gorman slightly out of context, “So, while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?”. To observe and notice this is one thing; to see it personify and grow in your young children is quite another level of magic altogether.

That magic has continued to develop in the years since but, against a backdrop of increasingly torrid times, political disunity, a shambolic response to a global pandemic and culminating in the peak of the “uncivil war” of January 6th 2021, that ambassadorial role became increasingly difficult. America’s position and positioning on the world stage negatively shifted with its actions. While the media abroad mainly placed the blame for that at the feet of President Trump, it was not lost on the people of the world that the rightly-touted democratic processes made President Trump, whether 51% of the voters liked it or not, the nation’s President and duly elected spokesperson. This rolled down the hill to me too as unofficial and increasingly unwilling ambassador. The confidence and optimism that I relied on and pointed to eroded around me — slowly at first but with such rapid acceleration through the events of 2020 that the connection to those virtues were left hanging by threads both personally and in the nation around me.

My experience of the Inauguration in terms of international attention — a brief burst of interest on the global scene, most don’t really understand what’s happening as those involved play it out amongst the glitz and “Oh look Lady Gaga is singing the anthem, what a cool dress”. As such, I had never really paid much attention to the previous inaugurations. This one, however, will stay with me forever. A nation didn’t just begin to heal, it found itself again. The optimism, confidence, hope, celebration of diversity and pursuit of unity was not just faintly stitched back together, it roared off the television screen through every part of the ceremony and celebration. None of this will bring back the 400,000 dead from COVID, and the wedges of division that have been further hammered in throughout last year will take longer than ever to remove, but now the path is forward.

“We will rise from the golden hills of the West.

We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.

We will rise from the sunbaked South.

We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.”

It’s hard not to feel ill-equipped when searching for words to do justice to Amanda Gorman’s poem and reading yesterday. As I sat, every bit as transfixed as the great Presidents of the past sitting just behind her were, Amanda encapsulated in 6 minutes for so many what it means to be American; she pulled together the soul of a nation.

As for this unwitting ambassador…I aim to approach this year with all the optimism and confidence that I can muster, aspiring to Amanda’s call to action and truly proud to be able to play whatever part I can in this country’s united journey forward from here.