The Importance of an Old Passport

Passports are not just identity documents but rather, they are much more than that. They have a record of every time we have left our country and went somewhere else in the world, a record that allows to flip through the visa pages of the passport and reminisce about all of our journeys throughout our life. My last passport had some seriously rich memories and even though I lost it while at Naropa one day, I will always remember what that passport meant for me. Specifically for me, it had two important journeys that I remember quite clearly, the journey I made to the Barleycroft Freehold and the journey I made to Bangkok to have sex reassignment surgery. These journeys were very important to me and were very spiritual to me, regardless and I hold them very close to my heart. And while they are still somewhat fresh in my mind, I would like to talk about these journeys that I made and their impact on my life.

The Barleycroft Freehold was much more than a plot of land and a few trailers just outside of Seymour, Indiana but it was a very spiritual experience. I have only been there three times in my life and those three times have had important meanings and lessons for me as I worked with my mentor on many of my issues. The first trip, which lasted from mid-January to March was simply a respite from all the issues that I was facing here in Denver because at that time due to my inability to find a job in the city. The second trip was to complete the name change process that we had started during the first trip and I only spent a couple of days in Indiana, coming back to Colorado to rush to the DMV to get my first piece of female ID with proper name and gender markers. The third trip was to prepare me mentally, legally (had some issues getting my passport) and spiritually so I could head to Bangkok with little issue. My time in Barleycroft is very near and dear to my heart and I would never trade it for anything, even if my mentor was at times, unnecessarily angry and unkind.

The other journey that the old passport commemorates is the journey from Barleycroft to Bangkok and this trip commemorates quite a few milestones in my life. The first and most obvious being the fact that I had my sex reassignment surgery in Bangkok and I will always treasure my time that I spent in Thailand simply because of that fact. The second reason being that this is the first time I have ever travelled to the eastern hemisphere of the globe. And the third reason being that I know that Thailand, as close to the equator and Gulf of Thailand as it is, is not nearly as humid as Houston is, even during Monsoon season! But to be fair, it did rain nearly every day that I was in Bangkok and that kinda made venturing outside of hotel room or the Internet cafe a difficult task to say the least. But I did get to do some shopping, see at least one cultural site (the grand palace/temple of the emerald buddha) and it was a very spiritual journey for me. I would never dare say that it was a capstone in my transition from living a male life to living a more proper, more correct female life but I would say that it was most certainly a milestone. A milestone which has made my life much better, much more enjoyable and much more special in the here and now.

I went to Tashi in Student Affairs today, as she is the lady who also manages the lost and found and so far, no one has turned in my lost passport yet. I know that there are not that many people here at Naropa, if any at all, that would willingly toss or steal such a sentimental object as an old passport. The people here can see the journeys that it has been involved with, both physical and spiritual. However, I do not believe that I will ever see the passport again either simply because of the fact that it has been gone for the last couple of weeks and while no one here as a student or faculty member (save for the transphobic Sudarshan Kapur) would have thrown it away, maybe someone in Facilities did not see the value in keeping it around and just threw it away. And honestly, that does make me feel quite sad. But at least I have other souvenirs of these journeys both in my memories and here in the physical realm that others can touch and feel.

No related posts.

Tags: Bangkok, Barleycroft Freehold, journeys, life path, old passports, passports, path, Sex Reassignment Surgery, Transsexuality, Travel