How do you measure a year?

How do you measure a year? In miles? In hotel rooms? In states or cities visited? In airports? In gas stops? In emails sent? Or blog posts?

One year into my first real job. Officially the 25th marks the date, but I started on a Monday, so close enough. I hope everyone else has enjoyed, or at least appreciated their last year as well.

One year ago, I was finishing up my studying for a sandwich test that would begin my training. The summer ended with classes about to begin on campus, I had a new townhouse, a new roommate, a car that had over 150,000 miles on it, thought a two hour drive was long, had only eaten Jimmy John's three times before, and had no idea about Priceline.

Here I am, one year later with an apartment in Chicago, the same roommate, a new car with 16,000 well earned miles on it, 22 states visited in the past year, and only order a #4, no sprouts, easy mayo, cut in half. I've seen professional sports teams play live that were not Chicago teams, feel fine with a seven hour drive, know the parking situation at Midway like the back of my hand, have a deeply developed love/hate relationship with Priceline, and have more tiny shampoos/conditioners/lotions than I know what to do with. I have plenty of new shotglasses and a pile of keycards in a bowl. Sync, GPS, and Sirius Radio are my new best friends in the car. Tons of blog posts to go back and appreciate. The weekends mean so much more than they used to.

Things that have surprised me over the past year: I'm still not allergic to cats, $65 a night will get you an awesome hotel, and while the scenery may change across the country, the people are pretty much the same. I can walk into any JJ's in the country and jump on the line without any transition at all. If you need something in a strange city, strangers will help you out. Illinois is not so bad. Of all I've seen and done the past year, I'm always glad to come home.

Let's see what happens in year two post-college life.