The Times They Are A Changin'

-By the end of July, four of my closest friends in Chicago will have moved out of town.
-They will be replaced by new hires, some of whom were born in 1988.
-That seems ridiculously young somehow.
-I am anxious.
-"All" my friends are leaving me behind.
-Is this what it feels like to stay in Ithaca for life?
-If you had asked me at graduation to predict which of my college relationships would strengthen/weaken in the future, many of my predictions would have been wrong.
-Yet I am still fairly confident in my estimates for what will happen with the four people mentioned above. Perhaps this is simply hubris on my part.
-I met two new people last night.
-One of them was an ABC girl, the first one I've met in Chicago, oddly enough.
-In the last week, one of the Fed AEs got engaged
-While another couple broke up.
-I have completed my second year in Chicago.
-It comforts me that I know the city like the back of my hand.
-The thought of starting anew in a new location is daunting.
-I have been reading Fuchsia Dunlop's memoirs of traveling to China as the first Westerner to study at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine.
-She managed to barge her way into kitchens, hearts and "forbidden zones" like Tibet through sheer chutzpah and tenacity.
-I know what I want, but I don't know how to get there.
-I want to go skydiving.