Blast From The Past – Passport

I consider myself incredibly lucky to live in a safe country and even luckier to be a dual citizen. A dual citizen of two safe and beautiful countries.

I recently helped a friend of mine work on a memoire of someone who has an incredible story. And while going through all the info and writing it I often thought what an easy life I had so far, how lucky I am to bring up the kids in a country and a society we find in Australia. And to also have the option to live in Switzerland if we would want or need to.

I still remember the feeling I had when we received our Australian citizenship and how amazing it felt when our Aussie passport arrived and I could put it next to my Swiss one. So please let me share a little Blast From the Past about passports…

 

There are two of them in my possession. And no, I’m not that person with a fake identity. I’m a dual citizen and, to be honest, I’m mighty proud of it. I love the fact that I have two passports. It comes with the luxury of having dual citizenship. And the funny thing is they couldn’t be more different in color.

One of them, the Swiss one, is bright red. The other one, the Australian one, is dark blue. While traveling on both of them seems really easy, it’s more the idea of being able to possess both.

Some people might see it as slightly (or maybe even strongly) unpatriotic to be proud to be dual citizen. Just because they feel so strongly connected with their one and only country. I’m definitely not like this. When I was a child I was dreaming of how it would be to live in another country. I loved the idea of traveling and discovering. I loved the idea of different nations, cultures and adventures. And I had a longing. A longing to go out there. To be out there and maybe to become one of the citizens of the world and not just one country.

So there are these two hearts beating in my chest. The one that loves my heritage, my red passport and all that it stands for. They neutrality, the security, the lifestyle of Switzerland (maybe also the chocolate and cheese that come to my mind while thinking of Switzerland). It’s part of my story, it’s my past. It’s the mountains I love so much, the dark green forests, the lakes, the green fields.

Then there is the heart that beats for my new found love. For the dark blue passport, for this country that is so very diverse and beautiful, wild, big and fierce. It’s my life now, my future, the future of our children. It’s the ocean, the rain forests, the desert, the heat and the it’s strange animals (I could do without the venomous spiders…). The lifestyle and the many hours you can spend outside.

What both of them have in common is the freedom we get to enjoy, the security both of them offer their citizens. The community. I guess we didn’t do that badly as we can fall back on two of the most powerful passports you can have.

While having a passport or in my case having two means to be able to travel and discover new places or return to places you have visited and loved so much, it also means having a home. Feeling home. Belonging somewhere, while being a citizen of this world…