Texas Tar Heel
A few posts back I mentioned that I had major, life-changing news. Well, I'm finally going to write a little about it.
I will be moving to the Raleigh-Durham area in the next couple of weeks. The short story is that my company got acquired and my new employer asked if I wanted to move there. I took them up on it. It makes a lot of sense professionally because the company is investing heavily in the area so it's good for my career at the company. The Triangle area has a much stronger high-tech scene than Houston so it's good for me professionally even if the company and I part ways in the future. On a personal level, my wife and I always viewed Houston as a temporary deal and North Carolina was on the short list of places we were considering as the next place we wanted to be. In fact, we went there on vacation last summer partly to check it out and see if we'd like to move there. And we loved it. So this opportunity was fortuitous.
But I don't mind saying that I'm a little sad and wary about leaving Texas. After several years of being pretty nomadic and living all over the world, I moved to Austin in 1989 and haven't lived outside of Texas since. For a guy who is excited by change - sometimes to a fault - that's a remarkably long stint. The majority of my past 25 years in Texas have been in Austin, a truly terrific town. When I moved there, it was the perfect place for me - young adult oriented, an educated population, appreciative of music, inexpensive, a strong high tech economy, and big but not too big. Of course it's changed so much since then! The population has doubled; traffic is pretty terrible; and it is not, in fact, as wonderfully weird as it used to be. And yet, it's still a great place to live. Best place in Texas in my opinion, and probably one of the better places in the US. Austin provided a fertile and nurturing place for me to build my career, advance as an artist and musician, meet my soul mate, and start a family. Who could ask for more? Houston and Dallas were also good to me in their own ways, advancing my career at key moments that wouldn't have otherwise happened. I will miss Texas.
And I will enjoy North Carolina. I'm looking forward to proximity to mountains! Oh man, will I enjoy that. I'm looking forward to hills, and forests, and tall trees. And I'll still be relatively close to the ocean. I'm excited to take my kids for a weekend trip to Washington DC. Most of all, I'm excited by the prospect of making new discoveries, finding new favorite places, eating new foods, trying new things - just like I did when I moved to Austin those many years ago.
I will be moving to the Raleigh-Durham area in the next couple of weeks. The short story is that my company got acquired and my new employer asked if I wanted to move there. I took them up on it. It makes a lot of sense professionally because the company is investing heavily in the area so it's good for my career at the company. The Triangle area has a much stronger high-tech scene than Houston so it's good for me professionally even if the company and I part ways in the future. On a personal level, my wife and I always viewed Houston as a temporary deal and North Carolina was on the short list of places we were considering as the next place we wanted to be. In fact, we went there on vacation last summer partly to check it out and see if we'd like to move there. And we loved it. So this opportunity was fortuitous.
But I don't mind saying that I'm a little sad and wary about leaving Texas. After several years of being pretty nomadic and living all over the world, I moved to Austin in 1989 and haven't lived outside of Texas since. For a guy who is excited by change - sometimes to a fault - that's a remarkably long stint. The majority of my past 25 years in Texas have been in Austin, a truly terrific town. When I moved there, it was the perfect place for me - young adult oriented, an educated population, appreciative of music, inexpensive, a strong high tech economy, and big but not too big. Of course it's changed so much since then! The population has doubled; traffic is pretty terrible; and it is not, in fact, as wonderfully weird as it used to be. And yet, it's still a great place to live. Best place in Texas in my opinion, and probably one of the better places in the US. Austin provided a fertile and nurturing place for me to build my career, advance as an artist and musician, meet my soul mate, and start a family. Who could ask for more? Houston and Dallas were also good to me in their own ways, advancing my career at key moments that wouldn't have otherwise happened. I will miss Texas.
And I will enjoy North Carolina. I'm looking forward to proximity to mountains! Oh man, will I enjoy that. I'm looking forward to hills, and forests, and tall trees. And I'll still be relatively close to the ocean. I'm excited to take my kids for a weekend trip to Washington DC. Most of all, I'm excited by the prospect of making new discoveries, finding new favorite places, eating new foods, trying new things - just like I did when I moved to Austin those many years ago.
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