Has it only been a year?

A year ago today I was flying out to Baltimore to interview for a job at BELL.

Frequently (more frequently than I'd like) I can look back at a year and think that nothing too impressive has happened - no major changes have occurred. But this year... this year there seems to have been a lot! Jobs, cities, living arrangements, relationships, family.

In some ways I can't believe it's only been a year since I was just starting the process of moving to Baltimore and in other ways it feels like a lifetime ago. And I think what really impresses me is nothing bad came of it. It was a total shot in the dark and lots could have gone wrong. But in fact lots of good came of it instead! I didn't totally screw up my professional life - and I think I'm now in a much happier place with my job. I got to spend a lot of quality time with Carl, Kathleen and, of course, Lily. I got to learn that I can happily live somewhere other than Chicago and make new friends. I met a great boy. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful whirl-wind move!

And now I'm about to do it all again. On Thursday I will be moving to St. Louis to start the next phase of life. Ryan will be joining me for the actual moving part, but will be coming back to Baltimore to continue looking for a job for at least a little while longer. We're both hopeful it will be a short lived separation. I think we're both really ready to be living together and taking that next step. I'm definitely ready to feel a bit more settled and back to having my own furniture and more of a sense of permanence!

I was saying to Ryan last night though that I think I'm, in some ways, sadder to move from Baltimore than I was Chicago. I'm excited about moving, but I think when I was leaving Chicago I knew it would always kind of be home and I could always go back to it. I know I won't be coming back to Baltimore. I mean, sure, maybe for vacation here and there, but probably not too frequently and not to live. So saying goodbye to people and things here just feels a little more permanent.

Don't get me wrong - I'm really excited to be moving, it's just a little harder than maybe I thought it would be.

But on that note, I must get back to packing. How I'm going to fit all this stuff into my car, I have no idea. But one way or another it will work out. It always does.