Happy 5 year anniversary Albany!

Hey guys, I've been wanting to write this post for a while now and figured now was a good a time as any to post it.  I mentioned this a couple times but this May marks the 5 year anniversary of me graduating from college and moving to Albany, NY.  When I moved to Albany I didn't know anybody living here.  I started a job that I really didn't know much about and I moved in with two random guys I found off of Craigslist.  I figured I would be here for 2 years max and wasn't sure what else to expect.  Well, it's been 5 years, 4 apartments, 11 roommates, 3 jobs, and although it hasn't all been perfect, I'm still smiling :)

I moved here thinking I would be here for 2 years while a part of a rotational program at work.  I figured I'd have no friends for those 2 years, travel every weekend to visit friends in either Boston, Rhode Island, New York, or Syracuse every weekend.  Well, what I got out of my move to Albany was so much more than that.  I never would have guessed I'd be here for 5 years and frankly, it boggles my mind a little bit that it's been that long.

There have been days, weeks, and months where I've wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of here, but in the end, I really am happy here.  I won't be here forever, but Albany is now officially one of the places I call home.

Albany is where I got into my first car accident.  Where I purchased my first car on my own.  Albany is where, from scratch, I made friends who have since become family.  Albany is where I started my career, learned how to run, furnished my first apartment, and started this blog.

I was living in Albany when I had my first trip to the emergency room for a kidney infection a few years ago.  It was my friends, now family, who brought me to urgent care, and then directly to the emergency room and stayed with me through the night.  It was here in Albany when I fell in true, real, never-be-the-same-again love for the first time, had my heart crushed for the first time, and had to rebuild myself from nothing.

I've really embraced living here and gone to see concerts and plays and comedians.  I've cheered for the local sports team in the Albany River Rats, the Tri City Valley Cats, and Union College.  I've made friends who have lived here their entire lives and friends from all over the world.  I've drank in the street at the St. Patrick's Day parade, put money on the horses at the race track in Saratoga, taken pictures with the flowers at Tulipfest, and rode the rides at the Altamont Fair in addition to attending Larkfest, Oktoberfest, Victorian Stoll.  I've skiied at local mountain Jiminy Peak and swam at Grafton Park.

I've gone to a neighborhood bar so regularly that the bouncers stopped IDing me.  I've gone to a restaurant so regularly that the waiters know my name and order.  I made friends, lost touch with them for years, and then run into them again, all in Albany.  I have friends here I have known since before they had kids.  Friends I've made and watched as they met, fell in love, and married.

As much as you grow when you first move away from home and head to college, I've grown up so much more in my 5 years in Albany.  I guess it's natural and it doesn't necessarily have to do with where you live, but I really feel thankful to where I've lived these years.  Albany given me a nice combination of independence and self sufficiency.  It's close by to friends and family, affordable to live, and has lots of new things to explore and try.

Who knows where I will be writing from 5 years from now.  But I do know that I will always look at at these five years as such an incredible time in my life.  Someday I'll take my kids back to Albany and point out where Mommy first lived and where all these special times in life took place.  It's been such a fun ride and there is still more to come!

So the count is 5 years, 4 apartments, 11 roommates, and 3 jobs... but many, many friends and countless memories.  Thank you Albany :)

Park Playhouse, Albany.

Racetrack, Saratoga.

Victorian Stroll, Saratoga.

Tulipfest, Albany.

Phish concert, SPAC.

Indian Ladder Farm

My first Christmas tree, Albany.

Lights in the Park, Albany.

My very first 5K I completed.

My first apartment I truly loved.