I had been contemplating a week-long/month-long trip to Baja when a little voice in the back of my brain asked, "How much longer is your current passport valid?""Good question," another part of my brain replied.
I rose up from my bed (because that's where I do my best thinking) and got out my passport.
Date of expiration: a year and a half from now. No problem. The trick, though, will be to remember to get a new one next spring.
I'm a big believer in international travel. Travel makes us more rounded people. Travel helps cure ignorance. So it's encouraging that a higher percentage of Americans than ever have passports. Of course, there was a big jump in 2007 when new rules required a passport in order to get back into the US.
However, the percentage of passport holders is still less than 50 percent of the population. And perhaps the people who don't have passports are the type who could benefit the most from travel. New experiences, new ideas, new outlooks instead of the same old same old. Of course, there are people who come away from travel more entrenched in their previous lives, because the world out there was (surprise) different, and they think different is bad.
If you don't have a passport, get one—even if you have no travel plans. Because, who knows, you might have an unexpected opportunity, and you'd be prepared. Being willing to travel, even if you never do, is way ahead of not wanting to travel.
True, we learn a lot from contacting ' other tribes ', in regard to acquiring a passport it's easier to renew it than to obtain it from scratch mine expired 10 years ago & requirements are a few among them a birth certificate, what a pain !!
ReplyDeleteThe process is indeed much different than it used to be. Born in 60', I've travelled internationally throughout my life and enjoyed it immensely. That said, I don't find the need any longer. Still just as curious; open to opportunity, different cultures and places but this country is much different than it was when I was a kid. I meet more different cultures in this country now than I did in my first couple decades on this planet - and I love that! More to the point, I don't care for all the governments hoops they want me to jump through these days in order to travel abroad. I'm sure if I hadn't been able to travel previously, I might feel differently right now.
Delete'I walked to school, uphill, in the snow, both ways ...'. Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself. ;)