My last day

Wow, today is my last day at The Union. After two and a half years here, most better than not, I'm done today.

My feelings on this unpredictable transition have changed day to day, but in general I'm tremendously excited about heading back east, being closer to my family, and really focusing on finding my next job.

There's a lot I'll miss -- the weather, the skiing, the wine, the friends. But we've made good use of our time out here, and we're definitely leaving with a lot of skills we didn't have before. We both have management experience, we learned to ski, oh, and we have a dog.

Do you remember that "Wear sunscreen" speech that gets circulated around graduation every year? There's a line that I never appreciated until I moved out here:

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

I think of that when I hear people saying that California is the only place they could ever live. Sure, it's great, but what you learn from moving around is that each place has its upsides and downsides. I've enjoyed living in Alabama, Virginia, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana and California. There's been something memorable about each one.

And now, for probably the first time in my adult life, I'm feeling homesick. It's not that I miss Alabama, necessarily, but each visit to my family in recent years has reminded me how much I'm missing by being a full continent away from them.

Well, the good news is, wherever we move, it will be closer to our families. East is east. Now if we can just beat the snows...