The day is Monday, March 6, and I’m panicking. I’m a senior at Greenfield High School, and in a month we’re going to be going to Spain with the help of the school, and the language teachers. I can’t find my passport. I turn the house upside down, picking through every nook and cranny as though they might contain the cure for cancer, but the passport is gone as though I never had it in the first place. Mocked by the fates I would find the accursed booklet hours later, but by this point I have already reported it as lost or stolen. I call everyone — the State Department, the Post Office, everyone—to no avail. I am lost without a working passport. However, in that slew of correspondence is an email to U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern. He is not able to save my poor passport from being canceled, but his office was able to get me an appointment for an emergency passport that otherwise I would have been incapable of getting. I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank our congressional representative profusely for the work he personally does on behalf of his constituents.
Fyodor Shapiro Michael
Greenfield