As of today, I’ve been in San Jose for one year. Time flies, really! This year seems to have flown by faster than any that came before it.
I don’t know if I should be looking back, reflecting on what value I’ve gotten out of this year, but what the heck else is a blog for?
There was one major goal underlying my move: to be happier. But really, I don’t know what that means because I don’t know how to quantify happiness; in fact, there have been plenty of times in my life when I wasn’t entirely sure what happiness was or what it felt like. Anyway, I think that I feel pretty much exactly the same here as I did back in DC.
I had a few milestones that I wanted to hit:
- find a cool, relatively high paying job
- buy a little Craftsman bungalow or a loft with a separate office
- meet someone, finally
Well, I did manage to buy a bungalow — while it’s not a Craftsman masterpiece, it is really nice and I am very pleased with it (with the exception of the high cost). As for the other two… well, I’m more disappointed that I haven’t found a job yet than a boyfriend. I can easily imagine being single for the rest of my life, but being unemployed would be a disaster. A steady income is far more important than a steady companion when you get down to reality.
And there has been one seemingly insignificant thing that has been a bright spot in the last year: the weather. Really, I swear. Who knew how much consistently sunny, mild weather could brighten one’s outlook, despite an 8-week period of rain?
I’m no longer “new” to the Bay Area, I suppose, so today will have to mark a new attitude — time to stop having a sabbatical in a new place, and time to start living here. It’s home now.
(Just for grins, you can go back and read last year’s entries about my first impressions moving to San Jose.)
Happiness, is enjoying the passage of time.
Nothing more, nothing less.