Today, I got a reply on Twitter to my tweet about roasting a chicken tonight for dinner.

@adamjackson Your definitely moved in! We are getting dinner updates again! You always make me hungry, but now it will be 3 hours early

Great point! I’ll keep this brief because I have so much going on with work that I can’t put up a long and drawn out post about all that’s going on with photos and ramblings. Instead, I just wanted to say that I’m moved in completely to my cabin in the woods!

Every single box is unpacked after I got home on Friday night from 3 days in Boston, all of my furniture was in the house and I pulled an all nighter on Friday and continued unboxing until Sunday at 2PM (I slept Saturday night).

It’s nice to be unpacked. I’m sitting here watching some baseball games today from my DVR and laying on my couch writing this. It’s nice to be back with “stuff” after nearly 30 days without anything other than a suitcase of clothes. From August 21st to September 18th, I had nothing other than a suitcase. It feels great to have my things again.

…and yes, I’m back on my schedule. My 40 something year old schedule of waking up at 6AM to a pot of coffee and the morning news, playing some Bob Marley and stretching in my living room then coming straight home after work at 6PM and cooking a full dinner for one at the house. It’s boring and 20 years past my age but it’s my schedule and I enjoy it. It’s quiet, real, relaxing and cheap.

Anyway, that’ the update! Thanks for reading.

The circle that we talk about is not marked or obvious. It just is like the clouds floating by. You can go inside, have a cup of tea and they’re still floating by. That’s us….floating, shaping, changing and disappearing from view only to re-appear again somewhere else.

Last week, I was pondering my wish to have been where I am today when my sisters were born. The primary reason is that I wanted to photograph the first time they opened their eyes, took their first breath and their first bath. This was a selfish wish because taking a picture is a detractor or separation from simply being there, which I was. I was in the hospital room when my sisters were born. I was 9 when Cheyenne was born and 12 when Marley arrived. I remember both events very vividly. So much of me wants to capture and hold on to birth whether it be a flower blooming or a baby being born or that meal that just came from an oven. What’s appealing about photographing death of a human, plant or the rotting of a fruit?

My outlook was wrong.

On Saturday night, I met a woman in her 60s named Alice. She’s the owner of the cabin I’m living in and her son maintains the property doing maintenance and building new additions. Alice has lived in New Hampshire for a long time but has done her fair share of traveling speaking to me about her time in Hawaii and in big cities but how New Hampshire just grows on you and how the seasons are simply incredible, “…but not the snow. The snow kind of sucks.” Alice made me laugh time and again as our friends and neighbors enjoyed the bonfire Sarah & Pat maintained from spare wood and furniture we were getting rid of. I bought a bottle of Coppola Claret wine and it didn’t take much for the affects to hit us. Me with my 15 year Balvenie Scotch and Alice with the Claret, she started telling me stories about death. It was incredible.

Alice told me that she’s been there for over 20 people as they slipped away. I asked, “in your lifetime?” She promptly responded, “in the last 5 years.” She argued that the act of dying can be far more beautiful than birth. maybe it was Alice’s age or maybe she was right but my eternal optimist and my photographic mind loves to capture birth. She seems to have a knack for capturing death..or actually, letting it go. That’s when it hit me.

Holding on versus letting go…

For the physical stuff in my life, I am too often willing to let it go and sometimes for no reason. I give away money, time, electronics and clothes. I give up on friends and relationships to try something new with a clean slate. I make up for that by capturing so much on Flickr, this blog, YouTube and Twitter. I take capturing the moment to another level and have backups for my backups of this data about my life. I spend a lot of time and money trying to preserve my life and the lives of others like my sisters.

Alice has managed to let go in the true sense of the word.

I don’t think she understood that when looking at things from the inside out. When I paused after she revealed the number of people she said, “It’s beautiful to be with someone in their old age…in their home…after a life of success and a brain full of knowledge that you and I will never have and poof it’s gone. It leaves, their spirit moves on and a body is left. It’s absolutely beautiful and an honor to be there for someone holding their hand when it happens.”

I almost cried right there in front of a stranger and said to her. You’re right. Death is a sad time but it’s not. It’s beautiful and relieving. You feel relieved when that person passes. It was their time and they are away to their next adventure. It can be sad but not for them. They aren’t crying. The person who just passed is finally free. They’re more alive now than they ever were before. Death.

Each year, I publish a blog post before or after my birthday as a quick recollection on my last year on this rock flying through space. Each year, I re-read what I wrote 12 months ago and laugh saying under my breath, “what an idiot.” That idiot isn’t me. It can’t be me. In fact, I’m a new me every second. The person that wrote that last sentence is gone and this person is brand new. Every day, I change so much that I can’t weigh in on what I wrote yesterday with a scale because so much has changed. Change is inevitable and I embrace that. The only constant is change.

On August 26th, I turned 24 and this blog post reflecting the last year was pushed back because I was making a trip across country to start new. Friends have called this the “clean slate approach” and many friends say I do this far too often. I disagree because I believe that even when you’re reborn as a child, you’re carrying over the experiences that you had in the previous life. I believe that you’re a better being- that you’re an evolved being – that you’ve learned something. I’ve learned a few things in the past 12 months but it would have been unfair to attempt a squeeze of all the knowledge and thoughts into a blog post in the midst of saying goodbye to San Francisco and  my best friends. I would have rushed this. Today, after completing my first week at mynew job, I’m ready to chat a bit about my last 12 months as a 23 year old.

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Last year’s post was a precursor to my breakup with Laura. These lyrics come to mind:

Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down
Oh, I’ll never know what makes this man
With all the love that his heart can stand
Dream of ways to throw it all away

I don’t think it’s fair to Laura that I re-hash everything. Friends of mine like Nick, Ben, Jessica, Kolin, Lauren and one or two others know the full story. They know a lot of what occurred after that breakup. For me, it was both good and bad. The person I am today would be completely different had I stayed with her. Where I am, what I’m doing and who my friends are. Even the bonds with my Father and how our relationship has grown is directly affected by my decision to become a single man. I’m happy with who I’ve become. I’m happy with where I am in life as a whole and I do feel good with myself. It doesn’t mean I don’t have regrets.

It’s been 1 year and 3 weeks since Laura and I split up. It took that long to be okay with waking up alone every morning. It may be a little longer before I’m okay with going to sleep alone at night. To those reading this who feel I’m immature for saying that, you’re either older, your spirit has been around a bit longer or your life situation isfar different. It’s okay for you to feel that way and move on. For me, I went from a quiet, geeky person…the overachiever who was teacher’s pet and traveling to trade shows on “business” at the age of 15 to immediately moving in with a woman right after high school. She and I shared our lives for the next 4 years and even moved across country together. The act of separation after going through so much together was tough. I won’t deny that.

Our bond was real and I regret not cultivating the plant longer. At the time, my decision to become single was selfish and immature but was appropriate at the time and a decision that I feel was the right one for me at that moment. It lead to a lot of learning about myself. Even on my last day in San Francisco before moving to New Hampshire, Laura and I had dinner like we were old friends because we were old friends. I am still very much in love with her and I certainly haven’t moved on but, as a man who is a year older, I knew the most appropriate act was to make this move across country and understand that for us both to grow, we have to continue on our current path. Life.

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The last 12 months have forced me to evolve in a way I never expected. I finally wised up and began internalizing things my Father has taught me since I was a young boy. My radical life changes, decision to take a vacation, dive in to photography (1, 2, 3), reading books and news outside of tech, traveling for the hell of it and taking risks. In fact, reviewing my posts from the past year compared to the previous year and it’s so apparent how much has changed.

Would you believe that this Adam has been going home at 5:00PM every day from work, hitting the gym and going home and cooking a meal for himself? Would you believe that this Adam took a cooking class and bartending class? Would you believe that this Adam calls his Mom twice a week? Would you believe me if I told you that new tech  stuff came out (iPhone 4 and iPad) and I finally upgraded after a few months of waiting and didn’t wait in line?

That’s a taste of me compared to a year ago and if you read that post I linked to at the top of this, you’d see a new person. I’m sure that in another year, I’ll be even more different. Who knows if it will be good or bad. It’ll be me at that moment and I’ll embrace that person.

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Something interesting I’ve discovered is my fear of experiences does get the best of me. It’s something first uncovered by friends and family that I’ve finally embraced. I won’t get into specific instances. Having new experiences is a part of growing older. At 21, did you say to yourself that you’d never have a broken heart? Did you ever say to yourself that you’d never go through a divorce or file for bankrupcy or be there as your kid fell of his bike and broke his arm? Did you ever imagine you’d be broke or homeless or jobless? Did you ever think at 21 that you’d ever have to worry about retirement or how to pay for college for your kids? Did you think you’d ever wake up and after a doctor visit find out you had cancer? Did you ever think you’d never have regret after a one night stand?

Me neither.

However, my answer to these questions was not to wait and see. My answer was to proactively shelter, shield and protect myself from ever experiencing these things. I’d save my money, I would eat non-cancer causing foods and I’d never ever ever talk to a girl even if I really liked her because…well that’s a longer explanation. Basically, I’ve only randomly talked to one girl in my life who didn’t start talking to me first. That girl was Laura and we dated for a long time. I’ve known her for almost 5 years. My fear with talking to a girl starts with rejection and ends in divorce. I’m a planner and it gets the best of me. My fears start with her ignoring me to getting caught in a one night stand (something I never want to experience) going forward to the complications of dating, moving in together, getting married, having kids and one day us getting a divorce or losing her in a car accident. This all goes through my mind before I even ask her what she’s drinking.

I never wanted to experience what I have no matter what the result. I never wanted to move across country twice or break up with Laura and go through that pain of separation and the pain of starting over. I never wanted to deal with gaining weight as a result of working long hours and never wanted to deal with the complications of making a close friend and having to call them from time to time to maintain the friendship.

Part of this stems from being an only child for part of my life, being someone who’d rather hunker down into a laptop screen than participate in school classes (i used a laptop all 4 years of high school) and being someone who was never into sports and avoided conflict whenever possible.

For the person I’ve profiled above, this year has truly tested me. I was forced through intentional roadblocks and nonintentional ones to go through a lot. There was a time when I was working for a company that couldn’t pay me for 4 weeks after I spent all of my savings on a trip so I was broke when they said, “for the next 4 weeks, we can’t give you money.” I still, to this day, haven’t asked family members for money. I stood strong, got an extension on my rent and my online excuse for “fasting” for 15 days was to work on my health when it was really a result of having no food to eat because I was literally broke. I didn’t eat a thing for 3 weeks because I couldn’t buy food.

To that person I profiled above, living a completely single life was a challenge. Of course, to everyone who told me, “you’re a single guy in SF, you’re going to have a ball!”, well they were wrong. Instead, I spent the last year truly being single. No rebound, no one night stands, no flings. I made some great friendships, finished a few books, went to the gym and taught myself how to cook. I didn’t use sex, clubbing or heavy drinking as a way to cope with being alone for the first time in my life. I worked on myself. I’d be lying to say it wasn’t easy but the Adam I am today is a direct result of saying, “fuck it. you’re single now. deal with it.” where so many of my friends coped with ending a measly 6-month relationship by going out and hooking up with women. That’s not the answer.  A quick high the natural or artificial way is no way to cope with ANYTHING in life.

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In the past year, I took a break from sharing everything online. I went from tweeting 20K per year to only about 12K this year. I took 2 whole months off Twitter and Facebook at the start of the year. I started a very private blog to speak frankly about life with a readership of zero as my way to express myself honestly for the first time in years. It was great and fun and real.

I also traveled less this year for business. I took two road trips for fun and went to Miami on vacation. I’ve been to Florida to see family 3 times so far and a 4th time will be in December. That’s 4 times in 12 months. These personal vacations took priority over trips to tech conferences. I missed some networking chances but look where I ended up. I’m at a great job in a beautiful part of the country with immense opportunities to make a difference more than ever before. Skipping SXSW didn’t keep me from doing something great in 2010. It was just extra and something you don’t have to attend.

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Humans are incredibly agile. We can cope, evolve, learn and blend. We can take pain both physical and mental and our body keeps going. Pain makes us feel alive. It keeps us alive. Without pain, depression, stress and fear creeps up on us. We have to continue pressuring ourselves to evolve and stay agile or else we cease to exist. We just perish.

The man I am today is a direct result of what I put myself through last year. Regrets are simply a part of life. We can be freed of regret through training and by realizing the positive affects of our actions.

I can still and always will be able to shed a tear for the person I used to be. The person who loved a woman who he left – the person who sacrificed his health to network and work long hours at the office – the person who lived the fast life and had no regrets. Just writing this line chokes me up a bit because I tried so hard in the past year to hold on to who I thought I was without growing or pushing forward. I miss that Adam quite a bit mostly because I was comfortable. I let everything unfold without doing my part to evolve and make things better….I was Adam the fearful. I was Adam the comfortable.

Despite easily being able to shed a tear for last year’s Adam. I have less fear, less comfort and more hope than that Adam. I have regrets that are counter-balanced by some amazing adventures. I lost a person who I truly loved but in that pain, I learned to love myself. I grew beyond my expectations especially considering I didn’t have any expectations when this year started.

What’s next? Life – until life stops and then it’ll start again. That’s life.

Everyone that I’ve met in passing or have been lucky enough to be loved by has influenced me in ways I didn’t think were possible. I’m grateful to everyone that has taken the time to ask me how my day is going. for reading this, you help complete me a little bit and we’re forever connected and I appreciate that.

there’s much more to learn and I hope … no I’ll see if I’m still around with the ability to share with you what age 24 held for me. Maybe I go on to do amazing things (by my standards) or maybe an accident happens and I can no longer do my job. Maybe I fall in love again and maybe I continue at my current trend which is no dating and no physical contact with others. Maybe I lose a leg in a skiing accident or I might not. It doesn’t matter. I’ll cry and then I’ll laugh. That’s life.

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Thank you for reading. It means the world to me.

As I stated in a post in late February announcing my joining Brightkite as a community manager, I could have applied to any location based social network in the world but I wanted to work at Brightkite. Here is one of the reasons why. This morning, I sampled the nearby results of the top 4 location based Check-in applications for iPhone. Foursquare, Brightkite, Gowalla and finally Yelp.

Each of these apps delivered very different results. A few things to keep in mind. Foursquare and Yelp mostly rely on user generated Content. Gowalla does to a degree but I can’t confirm where they get their other data. All networks allow you to add a place to say where you are but this is work. So many people that are in rural America won’t take time to add a custom place with an address and description of what kind of place they’re at. They’ll open the app, see these results and after trying to search, they’ll give up and move on.

I tried using Facebook and it only listed a nearby high school. I’m assuming that there’s some techie kid at that school using Facebook for iPhone and added it. Other than that, it’s an empty database for this area.

Yelp found nothing which isn’t too surprising. Their database is strongest in large cities and only the most popular restaurants in town are on Yelp and all have at least one review and only 50% of the restaurants have a photo. Most Yelp reviews I’ve seen aren’t from people in New Hampshire. They’re mostly people from New York or Boston that were taking a weekend trip and reviewing places they went to. It’s been hard finding anyone in town that actually uses Yelp.

FourSquare and Gowalla rely so heavily on the user added places model that their results were simply terrible. Gowalla was asking if I wanted to check in to a campground that is 18 minutes away by car. There are other places around but both of those networks just threw some things up on the screen. I tried to check in to the campground on gowalla and it said this was too far away to check in.

Also, note that Foursquare’s nearest “place” is 8,000 meters away which is basically 5 miles. Gowalla’s nearest place is 9K meters. Brightkite lists the corner store at the end of my road and other businesses that I’m passing as I drive from Switch Road to Highway 4 to I-89 into Lebanon, NH. I did a few more look ups on my way in to town and Brightkite kept showing me places I was nearby as FourSquare results didn’t really change.

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Brightkite soared for a few reasons. One reason is that Brightkite has the largest database of places. They’ve partnered with companies that have millions of locations and Brightkite has agreements to borrow that data which means if Joe’s Coffee Shop is a registered business with a business telephone, they’re going to be in Brightkite. If they move to a new location, it will take a few days to a month or two but that new location will be in Brightkite. You can also add a place if it’s not in here but I can guarantee you’re going to find it unless it’s Joe’s side business, “Saturday Night Cock-Fighting.” Since he’s not paying taxes on that business and it’s not licensed, it probably won’t be on Brightkite. Just click “add a place” and you can check in at the tournament, post a photo and say, “Betting $50 on Quick Draw McGraw” if that’s your thing.

Brightkite was my favorite LBS when I was in Florida and it’s my favorite here in New Hampshire. Even if Foursquare and Gowalla had better products, I’m not going to spend the first 5 minutes of my meal adding each place in town to their networks. It doesn’t benefit me at all. With Brighktite, the locations are there and I can just check-in effortlessly. That’s a good thing.

I figured that it would be appropriate to post a couple of notes with my first impressions of the city, people and amenities as well as covering the cross-country journey to get here.

Photos:
New Beginnings
My New House

It’s not like I’m going to Russia. It’s only a cross-country flight but it felt like a very long day. After an awesome day saying goodbye to friends, I went to bed at 1AM for a flight that leaves at 7:20AM out of SFO. After a call to Yellow Cab, I went to sleep, only waking up 4 hours later to my iPhone alarm clock notifying me that it was time. Clothes packed, stomach empty and teeth brushed. I hopped in the cab and a few tears fell. This was goodbye. It was real. This wasn’t a full on cry but it was there and sadness did fill my heart. I just stopped thinking about it. I glanced at my to-do list that will occupy my mind and distract me from the fact that I’m leaving the home I’ve had for a few years. San Francisco was the city I dreamed of living in since I was 15 years old and now I was leaving. That one last view of South San Francisco as I rode down 280 in the taxi and I felt something new and fresh. I felt a new beginning.

I was Boston bound on Virgin America. I splurged for the flight because I wanted things to be comfortable and problem free. Virgin took me down to LAX for a 2 hour layover and then it was off to Boston. I was seated in the good seats with access to power, Internet, unlimited food and cocktails as well as on demand TV & Movies. The distractions calmed me a bit but the day still felt like I was simply going on a business trip.

Boston was warm, about 25 degrees warmer than San Francisco. The air was humid and families reunited as I waited for my bag at the carousel. There were fears that my 8:15PM Flight arrival + checked bag would make me miss the last bus to New Hampshire that departed at 8:50PM. Luck was still on my side. I made it to the bus with 5 minutes to spare.

I’m no stranger to Boston as a tourist. People are generally pretty cold and keep to themselves. It’s not rude, just hardened. I’m used to it so I kept to myself as well and tried not to smile too much but people knew I was an outsider. I could feel that.

On Dartmouth Coach, I had access to water and free Internet. The seats were comfortable and the bus that departed at 8:50 arrived in Lebanon, NH at 11:45PM. It’s a 3 hour ride from Boston-Logan to my new home town on the bus. This $30 one-way coach goes from New Hampshire to Boston 4 times a day and it’s a line I’ll get more used to as I travel more. The cost savings of driving your own car and parking it in Boston doesn’t compare to the price of that bus so any time I fly out, it’ll be via Dartmouth Coach.

The bus pulled up and it soon hit me in the head that I have no way to get to my hotel. The hotel was 4 miles away and it was midnight and everyone there had a ride. I stood up hoping the New Hampshire kindness would present itself and I said, “I need a ride to a hotel near DHMC. I have no car and I just moved here from California. Can someone help?” Three people offered out of 12 that were on the midnight coach. We’re not in the big city anymore.

The kindness didn’t stop there. I arrived at the hotel and checked in mentioning I’m moving to town and ended up chatting with the attendant for 30 minutes as he told me stories of people who move to New Hampshire just like I do but most people staying there are just people visiting Dartmouth and touring the college.

It took until 1:30AM to finally fall asleep. California time is still in me but I did finally fall asleep right after a text message arrived from a friend in California saying that they miss me. I leaned over, grabbed the phone and replied, “I miss you too.”

My alarm went off at 7AM to that catchy 90s song by a band called, “Chumbawumba” where that guy gets knocked down and then back up again….you’re never going to keep him down. I called Sue who was the mother in law of a guy I connected with online. He had moved to Seattle but left his 1996 Nissan Maxima with her and it was being sold for $1500. The brakes needed checked but everything else was perfect. It had keyless entry, Bose speakers and leather interior and only 165K miles. It was a perfect car to get me through the next 2-3 months of driving. It’s a car that will get me to where I need to go. I won’t be taking any long distance drives with this thing but I’ll need it to get around and take care of business.

After 3-4 miles driving the car with Sue who was telling me stories of her grandkids, I was sold or I guess it’s safe to say that the car was sold. We pulled up to City Hall and I gave her cash. She was patient as we tried to transfer the title but since I don’t have a home address yet, I was stuck. After our chat she caringly gave me the title, shook my hand and said, “It’s signed, just come back here when you get the house and I trust you to transfer it all over out of my son’s name. Just call me next week to return the tags.”

I drove Sue back to her place and headed out to take the car to get maintenance and other diagnostics plus I need a state smog inspection done. After stopping by 5 places, I finally broke down and went Lebanon’s Nissan Dealership. Every car place was all full until next week with Labor Day pre-road trip maintenance making today’s schedule a total mess. Also, my check engine light is on so that was taken care of as well.

Maintenance was just under $600. Not bad to get the car inspected and a lot of work done. it was nearly 2PM so I had to drive and check out the cabin that I found on Craigslist 5 weeks ago. The owners were friendly and had saved the place for me this entire time. I lined up 4 places that day but really only planned on looking at one.

After a 20 minute drive, I pulled up to the new home that will be mine for the next year. This log cabin in Canaan New Hampshire is on 5 acres of land and the property line ends at the river running behind it. There’s a garden, hot tub, fire pit, back deck and large drive way big enough to have a baseball game in. There’s a garage which will mean I don’t have to shovel snow from around my tires every morning and everything about this place is brand new from the wood floors, to granite countertops to the gazebo and man-made beach overlooking the river. The owners live in one of the two cabins on the property and the main cabin is a tree level house where two apartments are on the bottom and I have the entire 2nd floor to myself where the basement is used for storage and the wood stove that heats the house.

Walking up the stairs to my apartment and I’m in a screen enclosed porch that overlooks the woods and could fit two pool tables. I walk through the door and a large kitchen with island and a spacious living room with stairs leading up to a loft that I can use for storage. Three bedrooms and an office is the space I’ll have to stretch my legs and I can have a roommate if I want but, at $1400 a month, it’s a place that’s 10 times as big in property and 5 times as big as what you’d get in San Francisco for the same price.

I knew this place is what I wanted upon seeing it but I had to think it over mostly due to the 20 minute commute to work. Back in SF, it took me 2 hours each way but this was driving and I was concerned because inviting friends to my place may be met with, “man you live too far out in the woods.” If I wanted this place, it was mine.

TomTom has a 1st Friday of the month happy hour. Most of my future colleagues were there. I met everyone, chatted it up and every one of the 50 people that introduced themselves said, “I read your blog.” It turns out, my simple blog post about moving to New Hampshire was passed around for a few weeks in the company. I’m pretty sure that my face got red every time someone told me that. I had some beers with my new coworkers and afterward, me and Mary went to Murphy’s on The Green for that amazing Albacore Tuna Salad that I had when in town for my job interview. We chatted about the company and my past. It was good to meet a colleague on a personal level and make a new friend.

Afterward, I hit the Canoe Club and ordered a scotch to do some people watching. Ended up chatting it up with a few nurses from the medical center and Daniel (aka the best bartender in the world) recognized me from when I was in town last and asked if I decided to move here. I finally, headed to EBA’s diner to chat with Hillary, the waitress who’s kindness convinced me that New Hampshire was something special and I saw a few more coworkers.

I laid out these details because I went to 4 different places in one night and each time, someone was there that I knew and who knew me as well. It’s a small town but the ability to hop around town being recognized and becoming a local even after 2 days in town is powerful. It’s a great feeling and something I can grow accustomed to very quickly.

Once this post is up and my photos are published, I’ll be moving into my new house. My suitcase is full of clothes, a soap and an air mattress. That’s all I have until my furniture and things arrive in a week from the moving company. To be honest, I can do without that stuff assuming the air mattress holds air.
A bit about Lebanon / Hanover. I’m very happy with the area. Hanover is full of locally owned places to hang out. The school gives this town an international flavor and the pricey entry point to eat and hang out here makes for a good experience but it’s still cheaper than SF or Vegas which is great! I can eat some pretty awesome food here for less than $15. Lebanon is exactly the opposite. It looks like New England. Houses are on hills surrounded by pine trees and there are covered bridges and everything is affordable. In West Lebanon, there is a plethora of big box retailers (take that San Francisco!) I have a BJs wholesale, Walmart, Staples, Office Max, Panera Bread, a mall, Home Depot and more. There are commercial retailers that simply don’t exist in San Francisco and this makes me happy. I can drive 5 miles from that stretch of “evil corporations” and be sitting on a lake front with my fishing pole in the water. Another mile out and I’m at TomTom’s Lebanon office where 300 employees are changing the world every day and another mile and I’m at Dartmouth college where 10K of the brightest ivy leaguers study and learn about the world and another mile will take me to the Appalachian trail with backpackers making their way up north with their full bears and worn shoes.

The whole area is so diverse and everyone is trustworthy, friendly and genuinely interested in your life as much as you are about there’s. In 3 weeks, the trees will be turning orange and the annual pumpkin festival will take place. 3 weeks after that and snow will start falling and I can learn how to ski. It’s an incredible place to live and I’m happy to be here.

Of course, these are just first impressions but I’m confident this is going to be a great home for me. Of course, I’ll keep you all up to date with what happens next. Thanks for following!