It’s my four year anniversary of living in DC! I’m trying to really let that sink in.. four. years. in Washington DC! That’s longer than I even lived in Chapel Hill for all of college. It’s definitely home to me now (though I’m a firm believer that you can have many “homes”), and I still love living here. Sometimes I take the city for granted, but there are many more times when, for example, I cross the Memorial Bridge and immediately see the Lincoln Memorial + Washington Monument and think… wow. Is this real life?!

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to live in this city, to work where I work, and to have the friends and the community that I have. I’m so very blessed, of course!

And now, DC by the numbers:

Number of years in DC: four

Number of homes lived in: one

Number of roommates: three

Number of jobs: two

Number of parking tickets: three

Hours sitting in traffic: countless

Hours spent on metro: roughly 2,000 hours, I think – wow

Amount of money spent on the metro: Wow. I just did the math, and it’s close to $15,000. SCARY.

Number of times I’ve been inside the Capitol: two

Number of times I’ve been inside the White House: zero (working on this!)

Number of times I’ve been up in the Washington Monument: three (it’s currently shut down)

Number of inaugural balls attended: one

Number of presidential motorcades I’ve seen: six

Number of happy hours I’ve been to: countless, for sure

Number of earthquakes: one

Number of blizzards: one

Number of bike rides around the city: five

Number of small groups/Bible studies I’ve been in: two

Number of book clubs: two

Places I regularly volunteered: two

Number of weddings in DC: one

Number of weddings outside of DC: close to twenty

Number of new friends: countless  : )

Any other “numbers” of life in DC you’re interested in hearing about?! Were any of these numbers surprising? What is the longest you’ve lived anywhere? I’d love to hear!