Today is bittersweet, as it is my last at Google. As excited as I am for my next adventure, I will miss everyone terribly.

When we moved out to the Silicon Valley we knew it would not be forever. I couldn’t pass up the chance to work for Google, and having the trifecta of major US based search engines on my resume (sorry Duck Duck Go). Yet Silicon Valley is too expensive and too crowded for it to ever feel like home.

We missed having space, both for ourselves and from our neighbors. We can hear our neighbors through the walls, and struggle to keep our kids quite enough to not disturb them. Even though spaces are so much smaller and cramped together it takes longer to get anywhere thanks to the insanely confessed roads. A round trip to the store a few blocks away easily takes 45 minutes. The park and daycare are both an hour even though they’re only a few miles away. Paradoxically even though there are more customers, businesses are opened for shorter hours. Our local bank branch here closes at 5, whereas the branch in our grocery store in the suburbs closed at 7.

The Silicon Valley lifestyle just wasn’t what Domingo and I wanted. I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had, and the people I got a chance to work with and learn from, but it’s time for us to move on.

I’m trading in corporate life for start up world, which will allow me to work from home. Doing the start-up thing is a bit of a California right of passage, and a dream of mine since before grad school. I’m super excited to have the ability to chase this dream while still having the family life style we want.

More details to follow.

Posted in Work Life | Tags: Milestones