I'm finally getting my passport updated, and in doing so, I had to turn in my old one. It's a strange feeling - more bittersweet than I expected - to lose those old stamps. They're proof of where your life has taken you, and it sure seems like you ought to be able to keep them forever.
These stamps, for instance, are proof of the year my family moved to Japan. I was in high school, and it was a scary proposition leaving behind the small band of art and music dorks I had been part of for the previous two or three years. We were moving to a foreign country, where not only did I have to find the new friends and places that would create my new community, but I would have to do so without knowing how to read or speak the language. I had done it before, but (considering how socially awkward I was) this seemed an especially unkind test of my assets in the charm department.
Bittersweet memories aside, I must say that I am happy to see this portrait gone forever...
I had better (and admittedly more) hair then, but I'm happy to have finally grown into that nose...
WOW!
ReplyDeleteFirst... was your passport seriously that old??
Second... I loved you in the breakfast club and sixteen candles.
Have had the same feeling every time I applied for a new passport. Still, I have always gotten mine back, eventually. So now they have become something along the lines of museum pieces: vintage, representing obscure fashion/hair choices, but bittersweet revisits to what has gone before. I quite like them- even if I hate the pix.
ReplyDeleteOh stop it.
ReplyDeletecouldn't you have "lost" it? i really did lose mine once. i'm still jealous you lived in japan.
ReplyDeleteI've held on to my passport, you can even ask to have them send it back once renewed, as I understand it.
ReplyDelete