Aging, Travel
RIP Old Passport and Thanks for the Memories
We were travel companions for a decade, but the future is biometric technology.
The State Department returned my old passport after I had received its replacement. It looked like a wounded travel veteran, punched through with holes that rendered it useless. With a mandatory "use by" date of January 2025, a decade after its issuance, the passport was at the end of its life cycle. I hated to say goodbye; we had become travel buddies.
I've held a passport since I was 16, but the now-expired iteration came into my life at a time of transition: an unwelcome forced retirement at 67.
I didn't realize it then, but Dr. Seuss was right:
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go…"
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
The disquieting turn of events had a silver lining: unfettered time to visit my newborn grandson in the U.K. As a further consolation, having a family base outside the U.S. launched a decade of European adventures with family and friends.
