This summer, I will have lived inside the Beltway for 13 years (well, near the beltway--the Greenbelt apartment was about .1 mile outside the damn thing).

When I arrived here, I
* was a young Republican
* was 127 pounds
* was less mature than most my age
* hoped to be a broadcast journalist
* had no idea how to live in the city
* thought Italian was adventurous ethnic food
* had never been to a rock concert that wasn't Christian contemporary
* occasionally wore sweatpants under my jeans to keep my legs from looking too skinny
* Thought Javan was a great poet, and that Monet was really amazing
* was highly skeptical of evolution
* was planning on voting for papa Bush
* was afraid of homeless people
* thought gay and lesbian men and women were sinners
* believed that premarital sex was a sin, and believed myself a sinner for wanting it
* hoped I'd be married by 22.

I was 18, and soon I will be 31. None of these things (I hope) is still true. And sure, many of those changes would've come with time (especially the not being 127 pounds), but they've all happened in this amazing, conflicted, hopeful city.

I suspect that this town will be "home" for me for a long long time.