How would my life have been different?

Dec 8, 2011 by cafebebemama

I am not one to join in on “memes” very often in the blogging world. But, when one resounds with me, particularly in support of a good cause, I am more than happy to participate. I was tagged invited by Seasider in the City to tackle the question: “How would my life have been different?”.

Here’s the jist of what Seasider is talking about:

Your birth certificate. Just a piece of paper?

Not really, think of all the things you wouldn’t have been able to achieve in your life without it. You couldn’t get a passport, or driving licence, your parents wouldn’t have been able to claim family allowance, you couldn’t have gone to school, college, university. How would that affect your life now?

Millions of girls across the world have never had their births registered.

Because of this they are often denied access to education, they cannot prove their age and so are forced into childhood marriage. Their whole future is altered – the impact of a piece of paper.

The Plan have created an app that highlights the impact of this using your own details on Facebook. it’s a moving piece that highlights how your life could have been different – at age 14 I was dreaming of those who were plastered across my bedroom wall, in another culture I could have been preparing for my wedding to a stranger.

Please visit this site to see how your life would have panned out…

So, obviously, thinking about how my life would have been different if I didn’t have a birth certificate…quite simply, I wouldn’t be here in the UK, I wouldn’t be a wife to an amazing man and I wouldn’t be a mother to two absolutely gorgeous children. I wouldn’t have an education, I wouldn’t have been able to learn to drive, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the United States. In fact, I don’t know what I would have been able to do. I probably could not have done much of anything really, including having a job, social security, insurance, the power to vote, the ability to buy a car or rent an apartment or go to University.

My children, with their birth certificates, have been able to become (will become in Sam’s case) dual-citizens of both the United States and the United Kingdom, thus enabling them to, one day in the future, choose where they would like to live, work and love. In fact, in 2 weeks, we’re registering Sam’s birth in Peterborough which will give us his coveted birth certificate so we can start the process of getting his UK and US passports. What amazing opportunities a birth certificate creates!

Thank you to Seasider in the City for including me in this important campaign. I’m not one to “invite” others so if you would like to include yourself in the “Plan Your Story” campaign, feel free to join in and link back to Seasider in the City and/or myself. How would YOUR life have been different if you had never had a birth certificate?