My first passport!
 

I'm very excited! To-day is the day I received my very own, brand spanking new passport! Now I am able to travel outside the States. Have any of you felt excited when you got your passport?

I have no recollection of my first passport; I think I was about 5 when I received it. My second one, however, was memorable! Three days before a trip to Costa Rica with my parents when I was 16 we realized my passport had expired. I had to go to the Federal Building in L.A. and beg for a new one. It involved waiting in hours of lines and then, only after some serious pleading, being told I could return the next day, wait in a few more hours of lines, and receive it. I think I had more patience then than I do now.

Congratulations on the passport! I hope you have a great first trip abroad! :)

Yes, it was 1982, I was 15, and the passports still had both English and French on the inside pages. Am I right about the French in there, or do I remember that incorrectly?

Never been excited... Was in my moms passport till I was 2, then got my own.

Yes - my first appearence in a passport was as a little tot with mom.

I'm on my fourth passport sans mom. Actually, I just got a new one - there is always the excitement of a new passport and the realization that its going to take some serious travelling to fill it up. For my prior one I was 2 pages shy of filling it up. :(

Got my passport 23 years ago and it still excites me.

Felt the Same Way
 

I got mine a couple of years ago when I was 16, I too was excited to get it. I haven't filled it up yet since I have only visited Iceland and Costa Rica. I hope to put a bunch more stamps into it in the next year with my trip to Asia I should get at least Japan, and Malaysia and probably Thailand and Cambodia.

Got my first passport very young, 5 or 6. It's a British Dependent (Hong Kong) passport. The coolest part was my name Master toryvict was handwritten on the cover.

Thanks for the congrats. Now that I have my passport, how do you keep your passport with yourself? Are those hang-around your neck thingies that store your ID proper for the passport or do I need something more sturdy? After all, it's proof of one's citizenship.

I keep it with my carry-on bag through airports and customs. Once I arrive at my hotel, I lock it in their safe. I carry a color photocopy of it with me when I am out and about. I don't think it's worth the risk of losing your passport to carry it around all the time.

Received my first passport when I was 18 months and my present is my third one. Its nice to know that you can go almost anywhere now. Been to four continents with all mine. Congrats!!!!!!!!!!

You are very much correct about there being a statement in French about providing all due assistance, etc.

I am curious about which year did such get stripped out of US passports. Remember those "green" US Passports issued at some point between 93 and 95?

I've had passports as long as I can remember.

My passport, issued in 1998, still has the English and French. I didn't know they don't have the French anymore.

I've seen the green ones; my parents had/have them. They're sort of ugly. I'm glad we went back to blue ones.

My passport was issued in June 2000 and contains English (of course), with both French and Spanish translations.

I was pscyhed the day I got my passport back in 98. That Passport contained English and French. After that Passport was just about full of stamps, I lost it. The new one I picked up in 03 has English French and Spanish and lists the state of birth which I think the first one I had didn't. Could be wrong on that though.

Congratulations, MadTheologian, I got my first passport in 1980 and my latest earlier this week. I still get excited about it.

When travelling abroad, I keep my passport with me (in a zipped compartment in my shoulder bag which I hang on to for dear life); I also take (and keep in a different place) a color copy of my passport, a certified copy of my birth certificate, and two prints of my 2x2 photo so that I can get a replacement passport if something happens to the original.

I don't remember my first passport. I must have been 6 months old. I think my mother has it somewhere. I was a very good looking baby.

As to where to store your passport . . .

if it's a biz trip, I keep it in hotel safe,

if it's a backpacking trip, I sew a secret pocket inside my pants, and keep all my valuables there.

either way, I also keep a photocopy of my passport

I was just looking at my daughter's first passport just last week. We got it when she was about two weeks old (we were living in a foreign country at the time) and the picture is hilarious. I had my hand clamped around her head to hold it up for the picture so you can see the tips of my fingers around her head. She was asleep with her mouth hanging open and the picture looks like something the alien just gave birth to in a bad sci-fi movie. I passed it around at her 30th birthday party and she about killed me.

I got my first one in 1969, I was 3 months old traveling from Germany to the USA with my mom.

I remember my first passport, I was 17. It was a thrill. A sense of freedom to fly outside the USA.

My passport had been expired for a long time. I renewed it when I got my job in aviation. It was still that sense of excitement when it arrived in the mail. I encourage people all the time to get their passport, it gives one the freedom to go somewhere anytime (of course, if a visa is required that may not be possible!). If an opportunity comes up and you are invited to a different country, voila you are ready and able to go!