Lauren's passport story

I am Lauren and I am 20 years old. I haven't traveled too much just here and there around the U.S. but at the end of August I am finally leaving the country and I cannot wait. I will be going to Mexico where I will be scuba diving, zip lining, and getting to see the beautiful land and culture. As I said this is my first trip out of the country so as we all know I need a passport. Well, that was an adventure all on its own.  See if you haven't traveled before, you have to get passport pictures from a place that does photos such as Walgreens and you have to wait for them so you can set up an appointment with a post office to prove you are a citizen and pretty much be interviewed to leave the country. Well I will start out at the beginning of my passport adventure.  I went to Walgreens to get my passport pictures and of course I made the ridiculous decision to go to Walgreens around 4:30 in the afternoon and like most places around that time in the day it is rather busy but on top of that Walgreens had a weather man in to talk to people about a storm tracker box. Well due to the Madison area having a lot of tornados this summer the store was filled but most of the people there,  were elderly now don't get me wrong I love the elderly but they are a tad bit slow, so it took my brother and I a good hour for us to be able to get our pictures and leave the store.  You get two pictures when you go, but you also need to have your ID, birth certificate, application, and money ready to go as well as the pictures.  Now you must make an appointment with a local post office to have somewhat of an interview... well so they can take your money and make sure you're not going to flee or something.  Well back to my story, I was collecting my things and my mother reminded me at least ten times to remember my birth certificate. But of course as normal I was running late so I grabbed my papers and my brother and I got into the car and we drove the 20 miles to the post office we were meeting with.  So here we are talking to this older gentleman at the post office and he was going through our application. He was just about ready to finish my application process when he asks me if he can look at my birth certificate. So guess what I did? Yes, I left both my birth certificate and my brothers at the house. So I ask the guy if I really, really need it because I as well as my brother have  licenses and you need to have a birth certificate to get one of those so obviously I do have one, just not with me... But of course just like every other government place they must make things so complicated. So I had to drive all the way back to my house to get the certificates and come back. But it was a lesson learned, never forget things proving your birth. So our applications were viewed our birth certificates were looked over very well. And as it appears I am in fact a born USA citizen. It takes awhile to get your passport back and it does cost more money if you are a procrastinator.... which of course because I'm late for everything I had to do because I waited until a month before I was leaving the country to get my passport. But if you plan a head, don't forget things, and be on time you will more than likely have a much smoother experience then I did. So if you are looking into getting your passport you should look into filling out this application https://uspassportnow.com/step/two/1 and make sure you have all your information correct on the application, don't forget to look at local places that take passport pictures, and call your local post office for application interviews.

 

And always remember,

Don't forget your birth certificate!

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