Jude Rosenberg Unlocked the World

So yesterday, I was waiting for my AP test scores to come which involves waiting for the mail.  I soon became distracted by practicing some Dr. Horrible songs on guitar so that I can play them in a video in the near future (meaning after Saturday, which I will sob about even sooner on this blog, but not today).  But once I remembered that it was not my first intention to come outside and draw sea turtles all over the sidewalk, I ran back inside and demanded (that's right, demanded!  But closer to politely asking, really) to know if the mail had come already and also I demanded to know where it was.  I demanded this of my dad who pointed to a spot four inches away from me.  I rifled through the pile and to my utter delight, I found not my AP test scores, but my passport that had arrived two weeks earlier than anticipated (my guess is the government shut down, but I'm not sure if that makes a lot of sense...).  I tore into that priority mail cardboard envelope and pulled out that little navy books.  I held it like Rafikki the baboon in The Lion King beheld Simba atop pride rock before the inhabitants of the African savanna.  I was that excited and it was that awesome.

Can you tell that I've never had a passport before?

There's a point to this blog post.  I'm not here to make references to The Lion King this time.

The passport wasn't the only thing lying in the cardboard priority mail envelope.  There was also a pamphlet of information that I should really look at, but I totally didn't at the time.  I still haven't.  On the front of that pamphlet, there were words that were more than likely never meant to be inspiring, but they totally were.

"With your U.S. Passport, the world is yours."

I basically melted upon reading this, because it's true.  And I'm about to take advantage of this new freedom very soon.  In eight months, I will proudly present this little book to the people in customs and tell them that I'm going to France for two weeks!  They're probably going to think that I'm on drugs because I'll be so hyperactively happy and excited, which means I'll temporarily be detained for tests and stuff, but then they'll let me go and I'll sail into the world with my happiness.  After France, I'll have my college years where Iplan to spend at least one year, if not two years, abroad (I would love to live in Australia and England for a year each).  Of course, if I'm abroad, I won't be able to come home all the time, but the countries in Europe are so close together that I could make weekend or even week-long trips to Ireland, Scotland, Germany, back to France, New Zealand... not all at once, of course, but you get what I mean, right?

With this little book, I have opened up doors that I have been dying to open for years now.  I feel so free!

Thanks for reading!

--Jude