I got my new driver's license in the mail yesterday. Looks just like the one I got five years ago. This bothers me. I mean it's a great picture; I made sure of that last time I was in DMV to renew my license. Now that it is all digitally done, I take a peek before I let the clerk hit the send button that whisks it off to Sacramento. One time I even made them take a second shot. Granted, I usually do end up with decent photos, but it is done with careful planning of clothing and jewelry, a fair amount of make-up, and at least 5 days of practicing in front of the mirror so that I have the perfect smile burned into the neural pathways.
I always get the option of renewing by mail, but usually opt to go in, (and I think pay more), to get a new picture. I sort of like to look like the person that is on the license. I couldn't be bothered with even finding out if that is allowable this time, so just sent in the check and got a duplicate of my last license with new expiration dates. Now I think I may have made an error in judgment.
After a lifetime of blonde, I am now auburn. I have finally owned up to the fact that I am not really 5'5". I used to be 5'4 3/4", or something like that. I am now officially 5'4" but that is not reflected on my license. The weight is within a kilo so that's no big deal. The main thing though, is that I am five years older and in five years, when the current one expires, I will be ten years older than the picture.
The last few years of presenting my good-for-ten-years passport was pretty humiliating. Comments like "what happened to you. You used to be so pretty!" Or, "This must have been taken when you were very young", do not help one's self image. The last time I left an overseas locale to return to the US, the Vietnamese boarder agent kept looking at the blonde in the passport without glasses, back to the bespeckled redhead, and finally just shook his head and waved me through.
I really am happy with the way I look, so it's not like I mind getting older. But I do think identity cards should reflect the person they represent.
Kate
