10 year commitment.

I make commitments every day.
I'll be somewhere at a certain time. Or I will do something for someone. Usually they are fulfilled within a day or week or maybe a few months. 

I am committed to people. 
I love my family. I love my friends. 

Every now and then, when I'm in the market for something, I make a 'long-term' commitment to a company, like AT&T for 2 years or with Nissan for 8 years and going strong. But even in these situations, I spend an inordinate amount of time thoroughly researching my best options. I research prices, take informal polls, and usually come up with some homemade excel spreadsheet to display my work. Usually, only then am I ready to commit. 

Today, I applied for a passport. 

Not only is my current passport expired, but I also lost it. I really hope that it's just somewhere in my room, because I've had that passport since I traveled to Guatemala for the summer my junior year of college to my last international trip to Southeast Asia a few years ago. Not having my passport also means that I have to reapply for a new passport, including taking new passport photos. 

I took a few extra minutes getting ready this morning since I knew this would be an important photo. I knew that just as I had my last passport for 10 years, I would refer to this photo as a snapshot of a moment in my life. It would be a photo, that close to expiration, I'd stare at in amazement of my then youth. 

I was ready and felt great, but I wasn't prepared for the woman in Walgreens who was taking my passport photo. 

First try. Nope. Earlobes have to be showing. This could be the difference between identifying and misidentifying a criminal, clearly, so I complied. (Kind of) I'd tuck the hair behind my ears and as she walked to the camera I untucked the hair. I'm inheritnly rebelious. 

But earlobes were showing, so she snapped away. 
Second try. Nope. No teeth.

But I'm smiley, how will they recognize me at Customs if I'm not smiling in the photo. No go.

Ok, no teeth then. Nope. Turns out I couldn't even get away with any smile. 

I'm not one of those seductive people who does a non-smiling, non-teeth kind of picture really well.

But what I can do well is...

Mugshots, apparently.

If you look closely, you can see me trying really, really hard to sneak in a smile, without smiling. Or without the lady taking the photo knowing I'm smiling. I guess I'm that kind of rebellious.  

There you go, friends. 
Today, I made a 10 year commitment. 
In a split second, in a Walgreens, under the orders of a silver-haired, experienced (albiet slightly legalistic) passport photo taker. 

I suppose it could be worse. 
I could be this kid.