1 year, 7 months, and 11 days
I try to be on top of things. Before I moved to New York City I enrolled in the MTA's direct debit service. They sent me an unlimited use MetroCard for the city's subway and busses. It was stowed away in my shoulder bag for weeks before I took that fateful airplane ride from West Michigan to the Empire State.
When I stepped onto the M60 bus outside LaGuardia airport to go into Manhattan, I dipped my card in the reader — my first official act as a brand new New Yorker.
The MTA just recently sent me a replacement MetroCard. And, thus, after one year, seven months, and eleven days I retired my very first MetroCard. I've really grown attached to this little square of plasticized paper with its one notched corner and black magnetic strip. I'm going to have it framed.