I was putting my passport away recently, and took a look at all of my passports and realized like souvenirs on the shelf, passports tell a story of our journeys in life.

I’ve Been Wandering Since I was a Baby!

My first passport is a shared one with my mom. We set off to visit England in the summer of 1977.  That’s when I collected my first passport stamp — the first of many — but we didn’t know that at the time!

As I looked through my passports I realized how much those stamps mean. They are more than bureaucratic red tape. The are reminders of where we have been and when we were there.

Stamps Galore!

They contain the visas we needed to live in England when we lived there. They mark trips home to the USA, trips across Europe, and now my trips as an adult.

My First Stamp

My Most Recent Stamp

They also track our progression growing up from a 2 year old with her mom to a 40 something travelling as an adult — and an awkward teen 😀.

Without these passports we wouldn’t have access to the world. We wouldn’t have reminders of when we travelled (which I need more and more now). And, maybe I wouldn’t be obsessed with the decor trend of passport stamps and postage stamps! The two go together naturally for me because wherever we went we bought postcards and sent them home to our friends and family. I still do that!

Without my passports I wouldn’t have photos like these — tracking my visits to Buckingham Palace or Disney parks around the globe at all ages.

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I am thankful I was able to travel as a kid, and have continued to do so as an adult. I have learned so much from these travels. I’ve met new people; appreciated new art; explored towns, cities, and villages; remembered world events; been awed by nature; and learned a language as well as bits of other ones along the way.

Maybe if I didn’t have these passports and experiences I would not have been willing to wander so far to college, and away from home after graduation from college. I’ve wandered a long way from both my last home and my hometown in my latest move. Thankfully my husband was willing to wander too!

These passports have served as my key to the world. I can’t wait to see where my passport takes me next!