My Norwegian family says, 'You're the most grounded American we've ever met.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm Norwegian.
I'm 100% Norwegian. Three generations removed and all continuous inbreeding of Norwegian of Minnesota and Iowa, so I traveled to Norway before.
Whenever I travel anywhere, I'm constantly asked if I'm Swedish. It's the burden of most Norwegians. The Swedes have just got a better publicity agent, I think.
When I came to America from Sweden, Mother and I, we went to Chicago where our relatives lived.
When people say, 'You seem so grounded; you seem so normal,' I think it's the way I was raised and the way my sister and I were brought up by our parents.
Well, I have a Norwegian father who emigrated to America in the 1950s, and he still speaks with varying degrees of an accent. Over my lifetime my ear has been well-tuned to that accent. Any first generation kid has that wonderful gift from their parents.
I don't really know what 'American' is. I know what Ukrainian is. We're happy Slavic people. We're not Dostoyevsky Slavic people. There's this sense of 'pick it up, get your hands dirty, make the best of it, celebrate.'
I'm quite grounded.
I love America, and I love to say that my family is American.
I'm from Norway, but I always felt like I'd grown up with British culture.