THE PASSPORT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED

I remember when I was a teenager being fascinated by passports. I didn't have one, and no one in my immediate family had one. But I knew early on that I wanted one. My family and I did a lot of vacationing around the United States from a very young age. We traveled to Washington D.C., Orlando Florida, Lake Placid New York (after the 1980 Winter Olympics), Mount Washington and Lake Winnisesaukee in New Hampshire, and every Christmas we would all fly down to Florida to spend the holidays on the beach together as a family.

Almost every weekend we drove from our home in Everett Massachusetts to our cottage in Amesbury Massachusetts. I remember it being a long 2 hour drive where my parents hoped both my brother and I would sleep on the drive up.

We traveled a lot as a family, but never overseas. I remember when I was 21 and had just moved to Los Angeles. One of my first priorities was to get my very first passport. I went to a photo mart to get my passport photo taken and then I sent in all my paperwork to the State Department. My first passport sat on the shelf for years until my first business trip overseas to London, Paris, and Amsterdam. The very first time I used my passport, I remember loving the stamps from each country inside. It was like my very own travelogue. Whenever I would see someone's passport at a party or on a plane I would always ask to see the stamps and ask people where they had been and what their favorite places in the world are. I dreamed that one day I would have a passport full of stamps from all over the world.

After travelling all over the world for more than 15 years now, I now have passport stamps from England, Italy, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and the Czech Republic. Every stamp has a date and every city in every country has a fond memory attached to it.

Although it seemed like very far away at the time, my passport is up for renewal in 2012. I'm curious to see where my travels will take me with my new passport. One thing is for sure though, I have to passport I've always wanted since I was a little kid. But its not the passport that's important to me, or even the vacations. What stands out most in my mind is the friend's I have been lucky enough to make all over the world. I would go to these countries and know no one and make good friends in foreign lands. Those friendships have meant the most to me. My passport is just colored paper and ink, but the memories and friendships it holds has more value to me than anything else. I treasure it.