 What's up fam? So it is Tuesday, January 15th. It's about 5 a.m. right now, and this is it. It's the morning of my citizenship swearing in. So I'm just getting ready right now, trying to wake up, and yeah, here we go. About to enter into the main thing down now. Piling in, just checked in at the table over there. Renounce and ensure. Renounce and ensure. All religions and fidelity. As many foreign friends. Open tape. Open tape. Save or sovereignty. Of whom or which. Of whom or which. I have here to forebend. I have here to forebend. A subject or citizen. A subject or citizen. That I will support and defend. That I will support and defend. The Constitution and laws. The Constitution and laws. Of the United States of America. Of the United States of America. Against all enemies. Against all enemies. Foreign and domestic. Foreign and domestic. That I will bear. That I will bear. True faith and allegiance to the same. That I will bear arms. That I will bear arms. On behalf of the United States. On behalf of the United States. When required by the law. When required by the law. That I would reform non combatant service. That I would reform non combatant service. That I would reform non combatant service. In the armed forces of the United States. In the armed forces of the United States. In the armed forces of the United States. When required by the law. When required by the law. That I would perform work. That I would perform work. of national importance, of national importance, under civilian direction, one required by the law, one required by the law, and that I take this obligation freely, and I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation, without any mental reservation, or purpose of evasion, or purpose of evasion. So help me God. So help me God. No matter where you come from, or what faith you grant us, this country is now your country. Our history is now your history, and our traditions are now your traditions. You enjoy the full rights of the sacred dunes that come with American citizenship. Very, very special. There is no higher honor. There is no greater responsibility. You now share the obligation to teach your values to others, to help newcomers assimilate to our way of life, and uplift America by living according to its highest ideals of self-governance and its highest standards. All Americans are your brothers and sisters, and each of us must do our part to keep America safe, strong, and free. America is our home. We have no other. You have pledged allegiance to America, and when you give your love and loyalty to America, she returns her love and loyalty to you. We share one American heart and one American destiny. It is a destiny filled with love, opportunity, and hope. We celebrate this day, we welcome you into our national family, we applaud your devotion to America, and we embrace the wonderful future we will have together. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America. What's up, you guys? So I wanted to give you a little background on me as far as when I came to the US and that whole backstory. I don't think I've ever really gone much into detail on that. So basically, to start, I was born in the Netherlands, which is also known as Holland. It's in Northern Europe, right next to Germany, Belgium. And I was born in the city called Utrecht, which is also known as a college town. It's like where a university is. So to give you a little background on my mom and my biological father, my mom is Dutch Indonesian for the most part. There's other stuff mixed in there. I think some Chinese, possibly Malaysian, stuff like that. And then my biological father is Moroccan, as far as I know. I don't have a contact with him really, so I can't really get into the history there for him. But basically what happened is my mom was in an abusive relationship and it was bad enough that my biological father was put in jail at one point. At that point, my mom decided that she wanted to take me and flee the country. She was fearing for her physical health and also her safety as well as my safety. So it was important enough to her and it was serious enough to her that she was willing to take me with no money and go to a completely different country where she knew no one, had no family, had no friends. She left her entire family, sisters, brothers, her mom, as well as everyone she knew, to take me somewhere where she felt we could both be safe here in the US. And the US obviously reviewed her situation and saw that there was merit in what she was saying, so they allowed us to come. And when I was here, I was about four and a half years old. Let's see, did I want to tell that story? Yeah, why not? So this is a funny story and this is something that my mom remembers and that I actually have memories of, probably now it's memories of memories, but in the plane ride from the Netherlands to the US, I remember it was a really long flight and my mom had gone to sleep. My dog is literally... Why do you do this? You haven't slept all day and right now, you just start snoring in the middle of my vlog. Come on, Duke! I'm trying to have a vlog now that he's awake. Good boy. So, okay, so we're on this flight coming to the US and my mom had fallen asleep. I was bored, so I took off my seatbelt, got out of my seat and I don't know exactly what I did. I mean, I was only four and a half, but I remember just approaching random people in the plane and starting conversation and they thought it was cute and funny. And I think at one point someone gave me some candy and I took it back to my mom and I just placed it on her lap to keep it safe. And then I went back out and started talking to more people and then everyone that I went to ended up giving me a little candy. And I would take the candy back to my mom's lap and pretty soon everybody in that area of the plane was all like laughing and looking and everybody was giving me candy. So by the time my mom woke up from her nap, she had a lap full of just a pile of candy and nobody knew what was happening. So that's like a fond memory that I have of coming to the US. So anyway, shortly after arriving we settled in Orange County at Southern California, like the Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach area. And for a while we were, you know, she was working whatever jobs she could get so we were scraping to get by really. And eventually she met the man who would become my stepdad and we ended up living with him in his house. Eventually they got married and he became my stepdad and ended up raising me for most of my life. The interesting thing is because we were essentially in hiding from my biological father, my mom gave me a fake name. So from the age of about four and a half up until I was 22 years old I went by the name Timmy. So everybody who knew me growing up in Orange County knew me as Timmy. And my last name also, I was going by a different last name. I never legally changed it. I was never adopted by my stepdad but his last name, his last name was Zimmer. So I went by Zimmer and I used it so much that I never even really thought about my real name. It was just kind of like in the background. So I went by Timmy Zimmer. And the reason why she came up with Timmy is because she thought it was the most American name that she could think of when she came here. It wasn't until I was attending UCLA. I went later. So I was about 22 years old and I was in one of my classes and I had introduced myself to people, Timmy. And then at some point the professor looks at the roll sheet. He's doing attendance. And he goes, who is Raif? Who is Raif? And I go and he's like, I don't understand. Your name's Timmy. It's Raif. What's going on here? And he said, why are you using Timmy Zimmer? Raif Derrazi is such a more interesting name, especially if you're going to school for theater and for acting. As far as branding yourself and promoting yourself, that's such an interesting, cool name. Why don't you be using that name? And I thought to myself, obviously the history and everything that I've been through, but then it kind of dawned on me like, why am I still using that name? What? I don't need to hide anymore. I'm a grown-ass man now. It is, he's right. It's a cool name. I used to shy away from it. I used to be embarrassed of it because it was so ethnic sounding. And I lived in Orange County, so, you know. But anyway, so now I was at a point where I'm like, I can totally own that name. I don't need to be afraid. And so I finally decided to go back to that name. So everybody who knew me growing up in Orange County knew me as Timmy Zimmer. And a lot of people still call me Timmy to this day. And then everybody here in LA, once I moved out here and went to school, knows me as Ray Fderazzi. So that's the story of my name. So a lot of people ask me why I waited so long to get my citizenship. And the honest answer is that, like I said, we didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up. So the idea of paying half a grand to get citizenship just wasn't even on the radar. And it didn't make sense to me in my head. There was no sense of urgency to do it because I was living here legally as a permanent resident. So I have almost all the rights of a citizen, except I can't vote and I can't serve on a jury. And then there's other like, inheritance and tax. And other minutiae that just didn't play a role in my day-to-day life. So I didn't feel a sense of urgency to go after my citizenship. I'm gonna out you, but I just have to share this. My mom's convinced that if I didn't get my citizenship, who knows what could happen. Perhaps someone could commit a crime and they look at the security footage and they see the guy and what if he happens to look like me and then someone accuses me of doing it and then I become accused of doing this crime that wasn't me, but now I'm gonna get deported because I'm a criminal and I get my residency taken away or I get framed for something and so, you know, that's what moms do, they worry. So, you know, she definitely put the fire under my butt to do it. So finally did it, got it done. So I'm so stoked. It's a really big relief to be honest. It feels good. It'll be nice to be able to vote too. I've never voted 33 years old, so that'll be cool for me. And an interesting note, something I hadn't thought about, something that someone online had brought up to me is that they were surprised that my having HIV didn't impact my ability to get citizenship. That didn't even cross my mind. I never thought about that, but I can honestly say that during the whole process, even during the interview, HIV was never mentioned, it was never brought up. It was a complete non-issue, and I know when I did my application, I, because they ask you questions about your moral character, and I mentioned that I, my blogging, what I do with that, what I'm passionate about, now I've worked with LGBT organizations as well as HIV AIDS organizations. So they could have, I mean, I'm sure they know, but it was pretty out there, obviously, in the application, and I'm sure it's in the public health record. So, for those of you that are worried, it's not an issue. It didn't hinder my ability to get citizenship whatsoever. Yeah, that's it. I wish I could have filmed more inside, but it was, you know, it was pretty restricted and limited what I could do. I couldn't bring my DSLR, so everything was on my iPhone. But I wanted to share the experience with you because it's really meaningful to me and I'm excited to be a citizen of the US. Alright guys, that's it for now. I will talk to you soon. Stay tuned. Way more content coming for you. Please leave your comments. I'd love to hear from you guys. Did you get your citizenship here? Where are you from? What was your experience? Anything you'd like to add? Please like this video if you like it. If you're new here and you're making my content, please subscribe. It helps me and it'll also help you stay informed whenever new videos come out. I'm aiming and really shooting to do once a week and more than that if I can. In the coming year, I'm working really hard so that I can work less at my restaurant and doing marketing more and more for you guys. So, stay tuned guys. Peace.