Changing of Seasons

The title of this blogpost is multipurpose. Quite literally, I have been changing seasons in a very unusual order over the course of the last year:

Jan-March: winter in Atlanta (40°F)
April-June: spring in Phoenix (90°F)
July-Sept: winter in BA (50°F)
Oct-Dec: spring in BA (80°F)
Jan 2012: between Texas (45°F), BA (90°F), Sao Paulo (75°F) & New York (30°F)

It's a miracle I haven't gotten sick these past 7 weeks living out of a suitcase and rapidly changing climates (knock on wood). And the season is due to change yet again as I make a move to the west coast. After several months of tireless searching for my next career opportunity, I have landed an "uncomfortably exciting" role with Google's Global Local Solution team out of our Mountain View office. The work will be a much wanted shift away from the pure advertising world but a great opportunity to leverage my experience working with small & medium sized businesses. Our new team is tasked with solving some exciting challenges Google faces in providing the small business owner with our current and developing product offering. As we have grown, our approach to bringing new products to market has not and my job will be to rethink the best way to deliver local tools & solutions to this segment. In addition to the work being interesting, the leadership and talent on this team is fantastic! Each Googler's reputation precedes them & given my experience working with some of these talented individuals in the past, I'll be surprised if we don't have this problem solved by the end of the year!

From a personal perspective, arriving at this decision has been quite challenging. Over the course of my 2011 adventures, I began to envision a future, more settled life for myself surrounded by loved ones and community. I clung to this vision as it seemed to be a glimpse of hope that got me through the tougher days. But the life I had envisioned did not line up with the priorities I had been pursuing or the opportunities on the table at the end of my Argentina assignment. So I find myself at a cross roads of reevaluating my priorities & seeking the path of least regret. And I just feel so human. No doubt this experience is teaching me an in-depth lesson about seeking intentionality in all my actions.

So as I turn the corner of my 27th birthday, I'm headed for San Francisco. I feel thankful for each day I have been blessed with on this earth and I'm going to do my best to keep living for purpose, telling an awesome life story, and loving people along the way. Here's to trusting your intuition, being thankful for loyalty and love from those cheering you on, and most importantly having faith in G-d's divine vision for our lives and His ability to narrate our stories.

I'll be sure to share my new address when I finally settle down (likely in early March).

Much love,
Carly