How do you measure a year?

10 points to those who got the cheesy Rent reference.

Scott and I celebrated our first anniversary at the beginning of this month, and while we ate the top tier of our cake and relived all of the great memories from our wedding one year earlier, we couldn't get over how quickly this year has gone. In fact, it hasn't felt like a year at all (although I guess that's a good thing...it would be a bad sign if we were going, ACK, it's ONLY been a year???). When we were little, the idea of "a year" was so out of reach, so beyond my level of comprehension, that it seemed like "next year" would never come...yet here we are. I now understand what all those adults were saying over the years - "Enjoy it, it'll fly by before you know it;" "Watch it, you'll wake up one day and 20 years will have gone by." So true. It's so easy to go through life every day, doing the steps, performing the motions, without actually living it. How scary is it that we can wake up one day and wonder where an entire year went? In light of this realization, I have vowed to at least try and reflect more often on where life is headed, what I learned today, what God might be trying to teach me through the moments that I may see as insignificant. Hopefully, instead of waking up next year, maybe I'll simply go to sleep tomorrow thinking, "I lived this day."

I'm rambling, so in celebration of one year of happy marriage (even a year later, it still sounds strange to say "marriage" in relation to myself), new friends, and growth, here are a few of the highlights:

1. Clearly the wedding :) But aside from that, getting to experience each day's highs and lows, serious discussions about life and where ours should be heading, and lots of ridiculously silly moments, with my very best friend...it has been such a blessing to get to a different level of knowing a person you thought you already knew so well.
2. Moving to a new city in which I knew 4 people and making it (definitely with many bumps and moments of "what on earth am I doing here?", and in large part due to Scott's persistent encouragement and the help of those mentioned in item#3).
3. Making new friends - these people have made this year not just less hard, but great for me. I was so worried about being able to do this a year ago, and I've already found friends who challenge me and whom I trust deeply.
4. Keeping up with my best friends from Trinity and elsewhere, seeing where life is taking each of them, and continuing to be there for each other every step of the way.
5. Every Tuesday night (related to #3).
6. New perspectives - God has used my new friends, our church, and various other things to get me thinking in new ways, and I think my goals and life in general are headed in a direction I wouldn't have considered or even been aware of in June 2007.
7. Wine and boardgame nights with Hannah and the mod crew.
8. Dreaming, musing, and making crazy plans with Scott for what we will do in the next 20 years.
9. Making friends with the best 18 month old ever.
10. Realizing that the saying, "You can do anything for a year" is absolutely true. Case in point: my job...1 year of the purple suit down!
11. Gmail's Chat feature and being able to stay up to date daily with some of my best friends (shout out to the group chat crew, thanks for getting me through this year at work).
12. Learning to allow myself to be open to others - friends, family, God - to speak into my life. I don't, and shouldn't, have to make life decisions or bear the burden of worry by myself, and how precious that feeling of community is.
13. Happy hours with Hannah and the mod crew.
14. Pushing myself, and letting myself be pushed to consider new options for my life that are outside of my "Plan A." And Plan B, or C, or whatever it is I'm on at the moment, is shaping up to be so much better.
15. Discovering Freddy's Frozen Custard (mostly with Hannah, working on the mod crew).

So, here's to a year, and here's to the next :)