Oh, you've been gone for a while...

Lately, I've been trying to be more social and going out to gatherings, meetups, parties (because that's what people my age do, right?), and the result has been, unsurprisingly, that I come in contact with real, live human beings. People tend to exchange stories, converse, and generally "interact" at these sorts of things, and I found one of these interactions to something that was said rather striking

Me: Yeah, I moved to Heidelberg, then Berlin, and then I was in a couple of other places but now I'm back.

Them: How long ago was that?

Me: That was 2011

Them: Oh, you've been gone for a while...

Hm. I suppose that's true. It's been about 3.5 years, and if someone had told me that I'd be  doing what I'm doing now, I probably wouldn't have believed them.