I have a passport.

I got my passport in the mail this weekend.

The brown envelope lay on the kitchen table waiting for me to open it.
My family almost opened it for me before I got home from work.
When I finally did break the seal, I was once again reminded that my two and a half years of planning is almost over and I am really and truly on my way to Africa.

Its a horrible picture - my nose makes Pinnochio look innocent and my forehead could double as a dinner plate - but there it is, my passport. Fresh pages ready to be stamped and new worlds to traverse.

I won't have to renew it again until I am thirty-three. What will I look like then?

Reality hit again, though, when I mailed the very large check to the travel agent. The ticket is officially mine and I officially leave on February 1, 2009.