The Patriot

Day 235

I renewed my Passport this summer. I can't believe it has already been 10 years since I first got mine. That was an eventful year:

*received my YW Recognition Award

*I was pregnant (OK, OK. On stage I was pregnant.)

*Graduated high school

*Graduated seminary

*Got my first full-time job

*Got my first passport

*Attended my last Girls' Camp (sadness!)

*Left the country for the first time

*Toured Europe

*Attended my first seminar

*Met my first niece

*Started college

*Began studying Chinese at last

*Had my first birthday away from home

*Had my first Thanksgiving away from home

*Had my first (and only) boyfriend

*Suffered my first nervous breakdown

*Was struck by lightning (while in a plane)

So, it's not like all of those events were connected. But they connect in my mind because they stand out as what took place that year. And that year is now a whole decade ago.

Being my typically nostalgic and sentimental self, I've been thinking back on all of those events. Especially my one-month tour of Europe with the band and choir. I learned so much from that trip. I've often looked back on it as my official "launch" into adulthood, putting so much of my life up to that point in its realm of personal history where it belongs and anxiously and excitedly beginning all of the new adventures that lay in store.

One thing I learned from that trip was how truly proud I am to be a U.S. citizen. How much I love the history I'd studied and lived "near" to much of my life. How much this country thrives in my heart.

Today I received my renewed passport in the mail. It really is a thing of beauty. It's not a plain old book like my last one. It has pictures of my beloved native land. And quotes that remind me of the country I love. And it made me think of how the next time I journey away from my home country, not only will I appreciate it more as I visit other places, but I will carry a sweet reminder of home physically in my hand, symbolic of what I always carry in my heart.

I love other countries and cultures and histories, but I am so very proud and grateful for the Lord blessing me to call this country home.