I think people with good passports don’t realize how much of a huge advantage that is.

I have never been asked to prove I have money to go to a country I don’t live in. No one’s ever asked to see my bank statements. No one’s ever asked me for an itinerary or hotel booking.

The richest people I know (like, generational wealth rich) in worse passport countries have to do that all the time

I can literally go anywhere I want in the world any time. (Staying forever is different. But often still easier) this makes a huge difference when it comes to: going for conference, business meetings, school trips, responding quickly to any opportunity that may show up somewhere else.

(I also grew up in a city that is connected to the entire world by plane. It was easy and cheap to fly internationally, even same day. I was able to afford this as a college student working two jobs)

I guess, in leaving that environment I’m becoming more cognizant of how that isn’t the same for many people.

Thinking of all of this as I plan a trip. My first international trip in years. Partly to see my family, but also partly work.

I did the math and with my international travel skills (I know how to get to places super cheaply and comfortably.. through decades of travel ‘hacking’)

I’m pretty certain that the out of pocket cost for the flights I might take to several continents is going to be is than the cost of what my friends who need visas might pay to get a visa to a high-demand / high-bar country / place.

We live in the same world but we all access it in different ways.

I had a friend who recently ‘upgraded’ his passport (by getting a passport from the country he’s lived in for the last decade). He was so mad that he was the exact same person, but he had to spend the first 40 years of his life being treated like a criminal for just wanting to go to some places for work / conference; and now with his new passport he can go any time.

He’s glad he got his new passport, but also mad to have personally witnessed and lived this disparity.

Anyway, I have five years to think about that decision.

With each year that passes, I have fewer attachments to my life in Singapore. Some practical things like: it would be nice to have access to cheap and good healthcare. But frankly when my parents pass, I will have no more tether there (almost all of my friends have moved abroad permanently as well).

Sometimes I think my fondness for Singapore is a mirage. Realistically, I’ve not had much of an adult life there except for 6 years in the mid ‘10s. And without the right to bring my same sex spouse there, is it even really a true home for me? I am just a tourist with an exceptionally encyclopedic knowledge of its food. At this point.