If I knew then what I know now
By: Jess | January 29, 2009 | Category: Travel
Who hasn't had one of those "Duh!" moments? You know, the ones where you realize after the fact that there was a much easier way to do something?
I had one of those moments as soon as I started my job with the Federal Citizen Information Center in November and learned about USA.gov.
As a child of the Google generation, my first instinct is to Google anything I want to know. If only I had known USA.gov is like the Google for government information.
Unfortunately for me, my dreaded experience trying to get a passport might be the perfect story to illustrate why I wish I would have known about USA.gov when I was in college.
At the beginning of my junior year, I wanted to spend winter term studying in Italy. It was a three-week program touring all the art and architecture in some of Italy's most famous cities, culminating in a final paper and three upper level elective credits.
It seemed financially feasible if some scholarship money came through. The only thing I needed was a passport.
I Googled how to get one, followed what I thought were reliable directions and showed up at the post office only to be told my photo wasn't acceptable. It followed the size dimensions, but wasn't zoomed in enough, or some detail like that.
I was caught off guard and frazzled, but the helpful woman working that day offered to take another picture for me.
I took a minute to catch my breath and compose myself so I could look pretty in my glamour shot. It didn't work. 
I never went to Italy, but I used that passport on my graduation cruise to the Bahamas, and to this day my roommates cackle with laughter when they think about my horrible, horrible photo.
Makes me wish I had known about USA.gov a few years earlier to check out all the passport requirements. I could have looked like a superstar in my photo. Or at the very least, not like a crazy person.
Please tell me I'm not the only one with an unfortunate passport picture. Feel free to share your horror stories in the comments.
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