Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

New York can be an intimidating place. 

I remember thinking that as I packed up our Budget truck for the trip up I-95 to our new home.  We didn’t know quite what to expect. 

What did we know? 

There would be people.  Lots and lots of people.  Lots of people from all over who knew nothing of us. 

There would be new sights.  New experiences.  New opportunities. 

Above all else New York would be different.   A total 180.  Foreign.

And change can be scary.  To go from the known to unknown can be a frightful leap of faith. It’s a leap we took voluntarily, but not without a bit of trepidation. 

I thought a lot about our journey on Saturday as we visited Ellis Island with Tracy’s parents, Don and Donna.  While the cruise by Lady Liberty and visit to Ellis Island is popular with many tourists, it was an especially important event for Donna.

You see, about 100 years ago, a young man named Romauld Achille Caquelard boarded a vessel from his native France.  He was 17 years old at the time, and the lone member of his family to travel across the Atlantic.  He landed at Ellis Island without a job and knew only a few words of English.  He was only a boy, but he was a boy with a dream who had landed in the country which gave everyone a chance to fulfill their dreams. 

What did he know?  There would be people.  Lots of people from all over who knew nothing of him.  There would be new sights.  New experiences.  And most of all new opportunities. 

Romauld made it into the city and found a job as a waiter.  And then Romauld found a wife.  And they had three children, the youngest of whom was named Henri Romauld.  Young Henri would go on to have three daughters of his own, the youngest of whom was named Donna Jeanne.  The same Donna Jeanne who stood next to me on Saturday and traced the names on the walls on Ellis Island.

There were some half a million names on the walls. The names represent only a fraction of the people who made their way through the island to a new life in New York.  Literally millions of people who left everything that was known for a new life in the land of liberty.

Suddenly, our 21st century version of moving to New York didn’t seem so scary.  And New York didn’t seem quite so intimidating.