Eleven years ago, my friends and I started talking about a trip to Canada. I’d never gotten a passport, but there was time enough before our tentative plans to do that. It turned out to be closer than I would have liked since I had to request a copy of my birth certificate from Illinois – and then submit that with my application.
I tend to be a nervous person when it comes to paperwork – especially something as important as the passport – but I carefully worked my way through the forms and attached one of the worst photos I’ve ever had taken. I’m pretty pale, but this one had me so washed out I could have blended into a snowbank.
But, I did everything right and got the documents submitted – then began the long wait to get the actual document.
By the time it arrived, we’d decided we weren’t going to go. But, I figured it would be helpful later on and it was – I used it to get my driver’s license updated when the needed ‘extra ID’ to verify.
I stored the document in my lockbox and mostly forgot about it.
Fast forward to last week when I was talking to a neighbor about…well… the state of things in the country and he mentioned that he and his wife applied for passports recently. Just in case.
This prompted me to check on mine and unfortunately, it had expired in 2024. Time flies, I guess. While it’s no longer valid, it was close enough in time that I could still renew it – instead of having to start over.
I looked into doing this online, but this required creating an account and that didn’t seem as safe as I would have liked. I opted to use the “form-filler” tool to generate a PDF and print out the application. I went over it three times to make sure everything was correct before firing up the printer. Again, nervous about making a mistake.
(This is the same reason I pay to have my very easy taxes done. I’m convinced I’ll make some kind of error and commit tax fraud and go to federal prison for 70 years. )
Last evening, I went to Walgreens to get a new photo taken. The process was easy – if a little pricey – and I had my photos in hand at the right size in a few minutes. There was also an option to have them emailed to me, but what I got was the un-cropped original photo. I’ve taken selfies that were closer to regulation. Sigh.
Today, I wrote out the check, got out my old passport and headed to the post office to get everything mailed in – along with a check for $130. Given the importance of the document as a citizen, that seemed pretty steep, but it was worth it to me.
The clerk at the post office commented it was a “popular zip code recently”. I guess lots of folks are thinking this is a good thing to have just now.
So now I’m home with my receipts and time. Provided nothing else goes awry in the federal government, I’ll have my new passport in 4-6 weeks.
It’s funny looking back at the old passport and the terrible photo. I was a different person 11 years ago and a lot has changed in my life. I’m actually pleased with the new photo – though Jim did ask if they let me see the photo before they printed it. Which could have been taken as an insult, but I just thought it was funny.
I don’t have any travel plans, but it will be nice to have that piece of mind.
Just, you know, in case.