Passports are a family thing

I have had a passport since I was 18.  When I was a freshman in college my mother was stationed in Germany.  Yeah... they ship me off to college and then go to Europe for a 3 year tour of duty.  The last thing my parents did before they left was take me to the base and get me a passport so I could visit them over breaks.  The experience wasn't bad.  Took a picture, signed a piece of paper, and 3 months later it showed up in my mailbox.

Since then I have renewed my passport twice, the last time this year.  Renewals are fairly easy things to do online now, and I never had to go into an office.  Typed it up online, printed it out, and then mailed it in!  My kids on the other hand have been a whole different story.  They have to get theirs renewed for a family trip we are taking and it has been hurdle after hurdle.  Some of my own making too.  I could go on and on about it, but I can already feel my blood pressure raising.

The one thing I kept thinking about while I filled out their forms:  I have to make this look nice so when my descendants look for passport applications they can read it!  Yeah, that thought actually went through my head.  Jeesh...

Think about how excited you are when you find that handwritten document from decades ago.  I bet the person filling it out was only thinking about how they have to fill this paper out, how quickly they could get it done, and didn't really think about who may see it in the future.  Who really does? That is unless they are in a field of study that has them coming into constant contact with original documents. 

Almost makes me want to take up old fashioned letter writing again!

photo credit: Baigal via photo pin cc