1 Year Later...

It has been a little over a year since my last "serious" blog about moving onto the next chapter of my life. I believe it was one of my last that I posted before I left Xanga. In that post I talked about the excitement, anxiety and thankfulness of moving to SF, working at Yahoo! and just generally embarking on a new leg of the journey.

The past year has been 365+ days of constant blessings. The cynical side of me lives everyday worrying that I've reached the tipping point; that I would be on the downslope once again. The (new) positive side of me thanks God every chance I get for the amazing year I've had.

I've had some great travels for both work and fun this year: A bunch of trips to LA, couple trips to Michigan for reunions, bdays and just cuz, Costa Rica with the GSB crew, Vegas, Chitown and of course holiday with the fams back in New York. On top of those travels, I've had the great luck of having awesome visitors and friends moving to SF. All these events helped my transition into the new city smoother than it could've been. I remember being in total shock and regret my first weeks here thinking: "WTF did I just do...."

Since then more than a little has changed. The biggest and most impactful change is that I quit smoking. This in turn led to a series of changes that makes me who I am today. No smoking meant a boost in general health, loss of excess weight and the ability and desire to run. The last few months I've found a new "addiction" to running. I'm not one of those crazies buckling at the end of a marathon...yet.. I ran the 5K portion of the SF Marathon yesterday and had decent timing. 25:41 - could be better, but definitely not my worst. The 3.1 mile run seemed too short of an event though so I decided to train for the 1/2 Marathon in San Jose in Oct 2nd.

If I were reading this blog a year ago, I would not recognize myself. Every year since I graduated has been drastically different from each other. With that being said, I always forget that I've only been out of school for 3 years. It sure seems much longer than that.

Year 1: Flushing Days - First year at work, experiencing the city for the first time, being broke as a joke, attending the craziest events, eating at the sickest restaurants, vegging sessions with "24", PIF, Puerto Rico, Thanksgiving Dinner, New Year's Ski Trip

Year 2: Manhattan Days - Second year at work, more established and slightly more financially stable, living in Manhattan, going out like nutjobs, Apt Parties, Concussion while boarding, friends moving, random weird roommate, people being coupled off, Dominican Republic, getting burned out, making the biggest decision of my life

Year 3: Cali Days - New Job/New City/New Friends. Financial Stability, Rediscovering myself without my comforts, living alone for the first time, taking "drunk" to a new level, incredible travels, rediscovering happy herbs, Costa Rica, Vegas, Tahoe Ski Trip, quit smoking, started running, hosting visitors, healthy-more positive lifestyle

I try to look back and chronicle my life because it lets me track the gradation of changes in myself that I take for granted. So what's in store for Year 4? I've been thinking about this a lot lately and the last 3 years have been crazy and amazing, but just sort of happened. There were no goals or benchmarks to meet. I've just been living everyday as it was, "Carpe Diem-ing" and realized that almost 1,100 days have gone by like that. 1,100 Days! That's too many seizing of days I think, and now that I'm turning 26, it's time to live with more purpose, guidelines and goals. It starts with writing down long term goals and then posting pictures of them on a cork board as a physical representation. This seems silly and trite but otherwise I'll just fall back into my laissez-faire style and next thing you know I've lived 5 years that "just happened i guess". In nor particular order:

My Own Little Restaurant
Ski Chalet
A Large Family
Christ Centered Life
A Home in neighborhood w/trees
World Travels

My goals are simple.