Canada was so close I could smell it. I stood at the desk and the man asked “You’re Morgan?” I looked up at him, confused, looked at the passport book still in his hands and all I could do was laugh. Obviously I am not Morgan. If you look at the photos of me and my best friend Morgan you will see the lack of resemblance.
The Back Story
You may be asking, how did you end up at the Canadian border with Morgan’s passport? Well, it all started spring break 2015. Morgan and I decided to drive up to Vancouver B.C. to spend our week off from school. We spent our short week up north hanging around Vancouver and meeting other international travelers at our hostel. On our last day, we were invited to travel to Cuba with some of the people we’d met. Sadly, we had to decline their invitation and return back to Oregon to finish the semester (eye roll). We drove down to the US border and passed our passports to the border officer. We paid little attention to who took which passport when they were back in our possession.
Getting In
A couple of months later I accepted an invitation to attend the US Women’s National Team play in the Women’s World Cup in Vancouver B.C. I flew to Seattle and took the bus up to Canada. It was a quick trip that required getting off of the bus and walking through border control. I confidently approached the border officer and handed over what I believed to be my passport.
When I realized I had Morgan’s passport I panicked. I wasn’t going to get into Canada. I didn’t have the time or money to go back to Seattle, exchange passports, then bus it back to Canada for the match. My only hope was that this kind man would let me into Canada without my passport.
We stood there for a while before he asked me who I really was. I explained to him what happened and he quizzed me on my previous visit to Canada. “Who I did you come with? How long we were here?” I passed his test with flying colors and he let me in! As I gathered my things, including Morgan’s passport, he wished me luck getting back into the US.
I skipped back to the bus before the thought of not being able to get back into the US set in. Once I got to my Airbnb I video called Morgan to tell her what happened. She immediately began researching ways to get my passport to me. When we realized overnight shipping would be way too expensive there was only one thing left to do. I’d have to take my shot at explaining myself to the US border office a few days later.
Getting Out
This time I was driving down with another friend and her family, who all had proper documentation. We approached the stall and began to tell the tale of what happened just a few days ago. The man looked completely…unamused. What I thought would require a little more sweet talking and sad eyes actually took very little effort. Within minutes we were back on the road to Seattle.
*Don’t try this at home kids! Always make sure you have the CORRECT passport.
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