For a website about money and personal finances, The Billfold publishes some really heartfelt stories.
This one, by Sarah Todd, is about the “just been slimed in my heart” feeling of realizing your passport has expired the day before you leave on an international trip.
Todd relates what it’s like waiting in line—and sharing McDonald’s hash browns—with other desperate travelers in need of eleventh-hour bureaucratic grace:
There was a special, sheepish camaraderie in the early-morning line. We all understood that we’d messed up. Now, filled with humility, we were throwing ourselves on the mercy of the U.S. government. Ron Swanson would have completely hated us.
