New citizen soldier looks forward to voting
Dulger, 21, is taking her oath of citizenship today, seven years and one day after meeting her father at JFK International Airport in New York. After becoming an official U.S. citizen, Dulger will get her passport, and she plans on registering to vote.
"A lot of people don't realize how important (voting) is," she said. "It is a privilege."
As an American, with her new passport in hand, Dulger will be traveling to Brussels, Belgium, where she will represent the U.S. Air Force in the NATO Chess Championship in August. She just won second place in the 2008 Armed Forces Inter-Service Chess Tournament in Arizona and will now be the first female player to compete in the NATO competition.
Dulger was born and raised in Moldova, a country that was once part of the Soviet Union. Both of her parents were teachers, but teachers there make $20 to $30 per month, and often less in small towns, she said.
It isn't always easy to obtain a visa for work, Dulger said. But a visa to represent Moldova in a competition was a different story. She has competed in France, Spain, Ukraine, Greece and other countries.
She arrived in the United States when she was 14, joining her father and a brother, who had arrived six years earlier. Her mother, who is divorced from her father, only recently immigrated, and another brother remains in Moldova.
In Moldova, poverty was much more than lacking the monetary means for survival. Dulger describes a culture difference that is so vast it is "like another planet." In her native country, a person could work two jobs and still have a hard time providing for a family. Volunteer work is simply not an option.
"You are so into trying to take care of your family that you don't have time for it," she said.
Dulger said the average life expectancy in Moldova is 50 to 60 years. In contrast, she stands amazed in a country where people can return to school to get a second degree and start a whole new life at 50.
Even education is entirely different, with options available here that are not even career fields in Moldova.
"You don't have to be what anyone expects you to be," Dulger said. "You can be anything you want to be."
That wasn't an easy choice for Dulger. She had gone through high school and enrolled in college. But she dropped her classes before the term had even begun.
Recent comments
You are a wonderful, beautiful person who has so much to give! I...
mama joanie | July 17, 2008 at 7:13 p.m.
This is a great story and shows how one can be part of our great...
Well Done! | July 16, 2008 at 6:05 p.m.
Methinks the Airman (Airwoman!) here could give Michelle Obama a...
Sub-Odeon | July 16, 2008 at 11:49 a.m.
