Have you been asked…

“If your house was on fire, what three things would you grab?”

Picking three has always been tough for me, but I can tell you at least one item that always makes my list:  MY PASSPORT.

Of course I know that this small little piece of identification can be replaced. But I don’t want to replace it. My passport happens to be the most important book I own.

I’m in love with my passport.

It’s my identification. My passport indicates where I’m from, where I’ve been, and where I’m allowed to go. You could say it takes me places, but it also allows me to go home.

It’s a symbol. It’s my book of dreams, of possibilities. The four passports I’ve owned have allowed me entry into more than 66 countries and paved my way to accessing cultures, knowledge and experience.

It’s a story. Chronicling my passage from one country to the next, from one year to the next.

My passport is like a personal time and memory machine.

While I am out traveling, I regularly flip through it. The colorful entry/exit stamps and pages immediately take me back to border crossings, strange airports, meeting strangers in wonderful lands, and so many precious people whose stories have changed my life.

J206773.  The number of my first passport.  I was in my early 20s.  Out of college: no job, no boyfriend, living with my parents in my hometown which I hated.  My best friend, living an exciting life as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, invited me to come join her there and travel with her.  So I jumped at the opportunity.  I bought a one-way ticket to Manila, got a passport and told my parents (in that order).  My life would forever change!

My passport is a reminder to stay thankful.

The more I have learned about other countries whose citizens are unable to obtain papers to escape tyranny and/or death, the more I cherish my freedom and that blue passport that I have carried around the world. I saw my first passport not only as proof that I was a U.S. citizen, but also as a written guarantee of my freedom to leave the country, to get back in, and to expect a measure of help and protection by American embassies while I was away.

Did you know that a passport from the United States allows its citizens free access to 172 other countries?

But not all have such an overwhelming spread of choices: Residents of Iraq, for example, can access only 31 countries with their passports. Venturing away from Afghanistan? Your options dwindle to 28 countries.

My passport also reminds me of the travelers spirit within me. Freedom to travel has allowed me to see life through other’s eyes. It has pushed me to taste new foods. It has allowed me to start conversations with those I couldn’t have spoken with otherwise. It has taught me lessons that I couldn’t have understood if I’d only read from a textbook. Freedom to travel may be my most favorite of all privileges provided to me as a citizen. Boy, am I grateful!

I can only guess as technology advances that this prized booklet of mine may become obsolete. I have heard rumors for years of a more digital version being introduced but am happy that none have been put in place yet. I love the nostalgia associated with this bound book of stamps and memories.

I know I’m a weirdo about this, but I can’t be the only traveler that sits and flips through her passport…. regularly. Someone has to back me up in the comment section or I’m going to start questioning my natural oddness even more than I do already.

“The freedom I have as a U.S. citizen is unparalleled. Despite the fact people may not like American passports, having that passport affords me more freedoms than any other passport could.”

Chris Cornell

So tell me…. what are your favorite visas or stamps in your passport?

(P.S. Need to renew your passport? You can do so here!)