When I was graduating college, myself and a couple friends talked about moving to San Francisco together and getting a hacker house together. We were raised to think the hacker spirit of Silicon Valley was the be-all end-all for engineers.
Fast forward a few years and we’ve finally done it. We got split up across countries, continents and apartments along the way, but now we’re here. It’s awesome, it’s everything I’d have ever wanted. It’s a cluster fuck sometimes but it’s the happiest I’ve ever been.
We have 4 bedroom here with 4 desks setup for hacking. After quarantine went down, we started running distanced workouts on our patio to keep sane. I’ve cranked out projects, had awesome late nights with friends, and hosted parties to meet new people here.
And the people. Holy shit. I anticipated loving San Francisco for the people but it’s far exceeded my anticipations. Between Pioneer, Twitter, and work, I’ve been able to meet more friends more quickly than I ever thought possible. People my age (or younger) working on really cool problems, trying to build amazing products. And those older, wiser ready to lend a helping hand and help in any way possible. I’ve met more people I wanted to meet in this year than the rest of my years combined. It’s special, it’s magical, and I can’t help but think anybody who says that San Francisco’s insane cost of living ruins the appeal probably hasn’t seen it.
As I sit here, typing out this blog on our patio, I can’t help but feel like I’m gonna cry. We’re all hitting our strides in our domains, finally reaching for the stars we all talked about for years. After moving around Canada, Europe, New York, etc I finally feel like I’m home. I love this city and I want to be here for the next 25 years.
At the time of writing, Donald Trump has enacted a stop order on all immigration into the US. It’s early, and it’s probably temporary, but we have no idea how long it’s going to last for. 3/4 of us were going to move onto something new in the next month, which throws a bit of a wrench in the plans to say the least.
I don’t know whether we’ll leave San Francisco, but it means coming to terms that I could say goodbye to this magical place, and it has me thinking about how progress really isn’t linear. The moves we’re making next are best for personal and professional growth. They’re the best thing we can do for the long term and I’m sure they’ll pay off in ways we never thought possible, but it’s hard to not want to sit here and savor the sunshine a bit.