GPOY with your parents

This was taken almost two years ago, when we’d first moved to the Valley, on my parents’ first visit. Since then, we’ve moved twice, I’ve earned most of a master’s, and we’ve significantly improved our financial situation. We’ve grown, I guess, though in less dramatic ways than our first year out of college, when we married and moved to Africa.

For one thing, I’ve learned to really love New England, despite my early fear of the cold. I feel stronger in real, tangible ways almost as significant as the ways I grew going away to college away, studying abroad, living in Uganda. I know how to handle icy bus stops and springtime mud and keep my heating bills down.

We’ve also found such good community here, something pretty rare, I’m told, in postgrad life. The permanence helps: as daunting as it was to move away from family for six years, it’s really been beneficial in building lasting friendships.

I guess what I’m saying is, it’s been a good two years.