I'm Leaving Pittsburgh

I'm moving to the NYC area in a few weeks. No matter how many times I've said that out loud, typed it, or even while signing the lease, and it still doesn't feel real.

I've lived in the Pittsburgh area my entire life. Every version of me that's ever existed happened here. The kid running Minecraft servers in his bedroom, the guy who quit those servers and didn't know what to do next, the one who got fired from Shockbyte and thought the world was ending, and somehow the one who turned all of that into a real software career. Pittsburgh is the only home I've ever known, and I'm about to leave it.

To be clear though, I'm really excited about this. This post is grieving a life I'm leaving but I don't want anyone thinking I'm being dragged to New York against my will or something lol. I'm choosing to go. The work we're doing at Scale has been incredible, the people I work with are genuinely great, and being closer to the team and the city just makes sense for where I want my life to go. I believe this is the right move.

But it's bittersweet, and I think that's okay to admit.

Because leaving Pittsburgh doesn't just mean a new home and a longer commute. It means I'm closing out a chapter where everything was familiar. My friends are here. The roads I've driven a thousand times are here. The places and people that shaped who I am are all here. I'm not even that attached to Pittsburgh as a city if I'm being honest, but it's still home. I don't think that ever changes just because I move somewhere bigger.

What I'm really grieving isn't the location but the life I built here. The small shit you don't think about until it's about to be gone. The people, the routines, the comfort of everything just being there. All of that is about to become something I have to actively maintain instead of something that just exists around me. That part sucks.

But I've been here before in a different way. When I lost Shockbyte, it genuinely felt like the world was ending. And then it wasn't. It was the thing that led me to Scale in the first place. I've closed hard chapters before and came out better on the other side every single time. I have to believe this is the same thing, just on a much bigger scale.

So yeah. I'm moving to New York. It's exciting and sad and weird and I still don't fully believe it's happening. But if I've learned anything over the past few years, it's that growth doesn't come from staying comfortable. And I've been comfortable in Pittsburgh for a long time.

Time for something new.