Since the Washington Stealth defeated the Calgary Roughnecks last Saturday to advance to the National Lacrosse League championship game, The Herald has ran several stories about the build-up to the team’s third championship game in four years. A few of those stories have focused on the Stealth having to move the championship game to Langley, British Columbia because of a scheduling conflict at Comcast Arena.
All Stealth fans are excited that the team is in the championship, but many are disappointed by the fact that the game had to be moved. Some won’t even be able to attend.
Other die-hard Stealth fans have had to make arrangements to get to the game. In Herald Writer Rich Myhre’s story that ran in Thursday’s edition of The Herald, he told the story of a family who had to get a passport for their teenage daughter to be able to attend the game.
That family wasn’t alone.
There was another person Myhre didn’t mention in his story that had to make special arrangements to make sure they could attend.
Me.
That’s right, this 31-year-old sportswriter didn’t have a passport or an enhanced drivers license needed to leave the country before Saturday’s victory over Calgary. In fact, I have only been out of the country once before in my life, a trip to Whistler, B.C. in 2008 when all that was required to get over the boarder was a birth certificate.
I have been the beat-writer for the Stealth for two-plus seasons and have been waiting for the opportunity to cover a home-championship game. So when the Stealth defeated Calgary, I was in a pickle.
Normally I would have been most concerned with what stories my boss, Sports Editor Kevin Brown, wanted for the upcoming week — and though that was a thought in my head, my most immediate concern was, “am I going to be able to cover this game?”
After finding out on Friday that the championship game would be in Langley if the Stealth defeated Calgary I had made plans to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and get an enhanced drivers license so I would be able to cover the game. Then a co-worked foiled my plan on Monday by telling me that it would take 2-3 weeks to get it and that a the temporary paper copy would not get me over the border.
At that point panic-mode hit. I wasn’t willing to just throw away the opportunity to cover the championship to one of the other writers on staff when the beat had been mine for over two years.
There had to be another option.
I did my research and made an appointment at the Seattle Passport Agency on Tuesday. I gathered all the documents I needed and even learned the cities in which my mother and father were born via text message with my mom during my scheduled appointment. It was probably knowledge I should have had before, but it had never really come up.
Luckily, everything worked out and $195 later, I picked up my passport on Thursday and I will be covering the game as planned.
One of the many lessons we all learn at some point in our lives is how wise our parents can be. My mom has been telling me for years that I needed to get a passport in case of emergency. I always disregarded her notion, thinking it was irrelevant. Turns out, mom was right.
So the biggest lesson I have learned from going on a wild-goose chase for a passport this week that I could pass on to young people out there.
Listen to your parents kids, they are a lot smarter than you think.
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