One month ago, we moved from the New York City suburbs to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

We had our eye on “the Triangle” — Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill — for a full year. From the moment we first heard about Research Triangle Park from a recruiter, and all the global companies setting up shop here, we researched, visited, talked to family and friends who live nearby, and obsessively read Sarah O’Grady’s blog to imagine what life might be like down here, what the moms would be like, and if it would really be a better life for our family of six.

And here I am, in my brand new beautiful home, in my new home office, doing the work I love. The children are tucked away at school and preschool, and Ian is off at his new workplace. And here I am.

When contemplating the move, I worried about all the things I loved —  my job, our friends, “artsy, intellectual” and suddenly hip Hastings-on-Hudson community. And all the things that would change — childcare, schools, culture, food — I worried about all of it. How could we leave New York, where we could “have it all” if we just kept working hard….or so the New York mentality goes…

But just as Sarah writes,

“There are smart, well-educated, career-minded people leaning in all over the country. Every metropolitan area in the United States features company headquarters, agencies, banks, law firms, retail stores, amazing restaurants. You name it, you got it.”

And how true it is. The local grocery store has more local produce, dairy, and eggs than I’ve seen at our Yonkers Whole Foods. Craft beer is serious business here. And I had the best eyebrow wax of my life just a few minutes away.

Would I compare it to New York?

Nevah.

But do I thank my lucky stars every single day that we took the leap?

Absofuckinglutely.