My grandma and I were talking about going overseas to her home country.
Her: my passport expires next year. I’m going to get another one but only a five year one this time.
Me: why?
Her: well I will be 90 in ten years, and I’ll either be dead or won’t want to travel.
😭😭
Just another moment to remind me how fleeting time is. I was going to make travel plans for next year or the year after, but I’m scared about bad things happening when I’m gone.
Life manages to be both fleeting and surprisingly long at the same time. Never put off things like travel plans because of that sort of fear, if you do you will find you’ve wasted your whole life fretting about things that don’t happen. It’s better to be prepared to cancel a plan if necessary than to never make plans at all.
In regards to the passport, your grandmother may be better off getting the full 10 years. She may not want to travel, but having identity documents can be very important and it can be a problem for older people when the documents have expired and they are not up to the trip to the post office to go through the renewal process. I’ve seen quite a few posts in the aged care groups I’m in from people struggling with bureaucracy because of this issue.
This is a really good point re: the passport. For example, getting the highest level of security on myID (which you might want to lock out scammers etc) requires an Australian passport.
My grandma and I were talking about going overseas to her home country.
Her: my passport expires next year. I’m going to get another one but only a five year one this time.
Me: why?
Her: well I will be 90 in ten years, and I’ll either be dead or won’t want to travel.
😭😭
Just another moment to remind me how fleeting time is. I was going to make travel plans for next year or the year after, but I’m scared about bad things happening when I’m gone.
Life manages to be both fleeting and surprisingly long at the same time. Never put off things like travel plans because of that sort of fear, if you do you will find you’ve wasted your whole life fretting about things that don’t happen. It’s better to be prepared to cancel a plan if necessary than to never make plans at all.
In regards to the passport, your grandmother may be better off getting the full 10 years. She may not want to travel, but having identity documents can be very important and it can be a problem for older people when the documents have expired and they are not up to the trip to the post office to go through the renewal process. I’ve seen quite a few posts in the aged care groups I’m in from people struggling with bureaucracy because of this issue.
Very well said
Thank you! I will relay this to her. And I shall make those plans when it gets closer to the time :)
This is a really good point re: the passport. For example, getting the highest level of security on myID (which you might want to lock out scammers etc) requires an Australian passport.