Driver's License

So I was doing that thing I always do where I plan things 20 steps in advance (I can't help it, and most of the time I wish I didn't do it, but there you go) and something alarming occurred to me.

I'm planning to put in my application for a post-study work visa during the spring holidays (I'm not going home, because I have too much to get done, so I won't need my passport. And I want to start applying for jobs before everyone else does.) And I went through all the points-based stuff for that - I have enough money in my bank account and everything, so that's all okay. And then I started going through everything else that I have to do within, like, the next year (I know, shut up), and I remembered about my U.S. driver's license. I'm allowed to use it to drive with up until September (I do have an international driver's license, but that expires at the same time, I think) and I figured I could stick the driver's license to the bottom of my list of things to care about, because the idea of driving here makes me break out in hives anyway, but then I looked at the license itself and it expires in January 2010. And, you know, I don't know if I'll be going back to the States before then. I have to write my dissertation this summer, and then by fall I need to have a job, and my parents are probably going to want to come here for Christmas again, especially if they can stay at my apartment, and really there isn't any excuse I can come up with to get them to fly me home just so I can renew my driver's license. (That's really alarming all by itself, isn't it? I don't know the next time I'll see home again - and I kind of don't care.)

So I took a look at other things I can do, and it turns out that instead of going home to renew it I can just exchange it for a GB driver's license, and that way I would be able to drive here after a year (you know, if I wanted to) and also I wouldn't have to go through all the hassle of going back home. But - wow, that kind of freaks me out. It's so alarmingly permanent. Getting visas and going through the stages of getting citizenship and all doesn't seem so permanent, because even once I get them there's no reason why I can't say, at any point, "You know, suddenly I really hate it here," and leave immediately with minimal hassle. But once I give them my driver's license...well, what would I have to go through to get another U.S. license? They already want more ID for those than they do to get a passport, for heaven's sake. It would probably be a complete nightmare. I guess before this occurred to me I was kind of meandering happily along, going "Yeah, I'll follow the path to citizenship, live here for five years, it'll be fine...WHOA, WAIT, BACK UP A MINUTE, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT."