a return

I'm thinking about returning to blogging. There are a lot of changes occurring in my life, and blogging has always been a useful outlet for me to sort through my life. I'm not sure how blogging fits into 2017 (culturally and personally/timewise) so on that note, here are some of my (non-comprehensive) thoughts on the past two years since I've blogged. Perhaps I'll follow up on some of these topics as time permits.

• Moving states, changing your legal name, and transferring the title of your car at the same time may seem like an efficient way to minimize your trips to the DMV, but in fact it is not. Especially when you are moving to Massachusetts. I would strongly advise against this course of action.
• On this note, changing your name is generally a bad idea. You would think, given the social norm of women changing their maiden names, that it would be an easy process and everyone would know how to handle a changed name. You would be wrong. I'm very happy with my new name but it's an awful process. Weirdly the SSA part was the easiest part - it's astounding the number of businesses that don't let you change your name and retain your previous account without going through an extraordinary set of hoops (but also don't want you using a name that's not current).
• Gift cards are the best wedding presents unless you have a particularly unique present to give. I definitely appreciate using an item and remembering who gave it to me, so nothing wrong with going for a registry gift - but man those gift cards are useful.
• Marriage is great. 10/10 would recommend. Though, as I recently told some family members, it's great if you're married to the right person. Like 95% of what makes marriage great (in my opinion) is specific to Nathaniel and would be terrible if I were married to someone who didn't complement me well (and give me grace where we don't complement one another!).
• Moving is hard, but living in a new region can be so worth it. I've learned so much about my cultural biases and expectations just from living in New England; I imagine it would be infinitely more illuminating to live in a different country. (Don't get me started on New England culture - this is a topic for a much longer discussion.)
• Health is so fragile! I learned this last summer with an unexpected injury that left me on crutches for four months. I cannot overstate how much this experience shifted my perspective, so I will leave this topic and may return to it at length at a later time.
• It's so disorienting to travel in Canada but I loved it and want to return. Again, it's a similar culture to the US and I imagine there are many other countries which I would find much more disorienting, but some small differences that came up a few times: KPH instead of MPH, much more prevalent use of swiping your card on a handheld device right at your table, lots more questions from inquisitive strangers re:injuries. Also, I think we must have answered a question incorrectly at the border because they pulled us over and questioned us extensively.
• Many of my feelings about the political events of the past year can be described as anger, but like any good economist I am trying to let data and evidence inform my opinions rather than speculations and extreme cases. I've struggled a lot with whether to post on social media about different topics but have generally decided on a hands-off approach in order to engage more with issues in a personal way, and to let more informed voices speak on subjects that I feel woefully undereducated in. I think this has the potential to be the wrong decision, so it may change in the future; I don't desire to be passive, and I want to use my voice thoughtfully.
• With all of our advances in technology I am constantly surprised by how hard some things are. For example, applying for jobs/schools requires carefully crafted documents and then also filling out endless forms/pages with the same information that is presented in those documents. I understand from a data collection/analysis point of view that it is helpful to receive information in this manner, but then why do we still rely on resumes? If you didn't have good internet access/a smartphone, how difficult would it be to apply to anything? 
• I have lots more thoughts about public policy than I thought I would as an undergrad, and I feel like my interests in this area are expanding every day. Good thing that's what I'm studying!
• Young people these days feel like an entirely new generation. I feel like there's so much variation in millennials regarding how we use technology and social media and how we relate to one another, and I wonder how much of that is specific to now. In previous generations did it feel like the gap just kept growing wider? Are we just hyperaware of our differences because we're so connected online? How much of the difference that I feel between myself and college students is due to the fact that I'm married and how much is due to the fact that I'm no longer a college student?
• Again, moving is hard.