The fight to wear my kilt.

by Daniel
(Colorado Springs, CO, USA)

When I mean fight I mean a verbal fight. At my high school I wanted to wear my kilt (which is the MacKinnon tartan) for my senior prom and my graduation. Yet my school said that it was not acceptable to wear my kilt to either. Yet I did not back down, again I went forward to request to wear my kilt (again I was turned down).

Finally I wrote a request to meet with my school principle, and my school counselor, and my school's graduation board. They again asked me what I wanted to do, and I said that I wanted to represent not only my family, but my heritage. The argument as you may want to call it lasted two hours yet in the end I told them the history of Scotland and more so the history of my family. In the end they asked why did it mean so much to me, and I told them about how I consider myself a Scottish nationalist, and that my family fought in both 1714 and 1745 (the Jacobite Rising).

They told me to step outside and then they called me in again and asked me if this was all I wanted to say....I waited and said "no, one more thing" they asked me what and I said "Audentes fortuna juvat" translation-Fortune assists the daring (the MacKinnon motto) and "Cumnich Bas Alpin" translation-Remember the death of Alpin (the MacKinnon slogan). They smiled and said thank you, I smiled and said tapadh leibh (gaelic for Thank you) and then before I left I said "In My Defens God Me Defend".

A week later I was given a letter by the school board which I quote "....we doubted your love for your heritage and your ancestral land, and we will be glad to let you wear you kilt to both prom and your graduation...". Which I will be doing with great pride.

I later found out a few family members in Scotland plan to come to my graduation which fills me with even more pride knowing I'll being wearing my kilt.


I'm so overjoyed to be Scottish, and I hope I live there. Yet if I don't I will always have my kilt to connect me to what I want to call my family land.