The End of an Era

This week I recieved an envelope in the mail from the government. Since I haven't done my taxes yet this year, I knew it wasn't money (sadly), but I was still surprised to find in it my brand spankin' new US passport. The picture looks very much like a bad fake, and I am quite sure that at some point between now and my next renewal this fact will be the primary cause for a hold up for me in some obscure customs booth somewhere on the planet.

But that unfortunate detail aside, as I sat on my bed in Wheaton flipping through this new document, the moment seemed almost sacred.

I thought back over the ten years during which my old passport had served me. I counted today: My old passport contains 63 passport stamps, 6 visas, and represents trips to 25 countries. I had to get pages added while I was in China, because the border guys were getting grumpy about there not being enough free space to stamp it anymore. That passport went with me on two missions trips, three study abroad trips, a year of teaching in China, and a month of traveling around Europe.

If my passport could speak, the stories it would tell!

Of my first time out of the country- 2 weeks in the Dominican Republic when I was 18. We got stopped in the airport because one of the guys on my team had packed a machete in his carry-on luggage! Stupid boy. Fortunately, this was 1998, so he didn't go to jail or anything.

Of the time I went to Hong Kong with Joy and only realized after I'd left China that my visa was only a single-entry; in other words, I couldn't get back into the Mainland without being issued a new visa.

Of my trip to Russia. Of just starting to get settled and hearing a report one Tuesday night- terrorists had bombed New York City. We thought it was a joke at first. But all too soon it became apparent, as we watched the talking heads (maddeningly dubbed over in Russian, which we couldn't understand) spoke for hours and hours about the three planes that had crashed and of the trauma that was unfolding in our homeland, amoung OUR people, so far away. We, huddled silently in front of the only tv in the dorm, watching; watching and praying that none of our family had taken a last-minute trip to NYC, and that it was really over.

My passport might tell of my month of traveling in Europe. This was by far its most hard-worked month. Ten countries in less than 30 days. We even PAID for a stamp in Liechtenstien!

So many memories. I wonder what the next ten years will have in store for me. Will I have more or fewer stamps when I renew my passport in 2018? How will the world have changed? How will I have changed? What stories will my new passport have to tell on that day?