Moving to Seattle
Yes, it's official. The Kobersteins are pulling up stakes and moving out of state!
I will be leaving Google Mountain View and heading to the Seattle office to work for Cloud Billing. Danielle has been looking at houses for what seems like the past 4 years straight. In the end we decided to try our luck in a new state. It was a joint decision with the family to make the move out of the area to somewhere it might be a little easier to raise our 4 kids. While I am very excited for the change I am also very sad to be leaving behind my childhood home here in the Bay Area. I will miss frequent visits from Mom and Dad Koberstein and Severson and our various siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, and friends in the area. You will all be missed!
It has been a hard decision to move. We ended up choosing Seattle because we are able to find a place there that meets everything that we wanted. We really did try to find a way to stay in California. Everything we looked at in the Bay Area area required us to compromise something important to us. Long commute, worse schools, or tiny run down house. We chose an area in Redmond, WA that has all the good things we were looking for: schools like Danville, a commute like Palo Alto, and housing prices like Newark.
It's odd when you make a decision like moving. You try your best to figure out how it will change your life but I find it nearly impossible to actually know if a big life change is going to be better or worse. It seems like the things that have the biggest effect on your life are often so small that you cannot anticipate them fully. Maybe your neighbor just doesn't get along with you. Maybe your new job will be much more rewarding. Maybe your children will fall into a circle of friends who are up to no good. Hard to say. That said we are fairly confident that we are going to love Washington. So far it has been great every time we have visited. I already have a long list of things I want to do in the area and the people I have met have been nothing but kind. The excitement we feel about our new home makes the sadness we feel about leaving our old home easier to deal with.
It has been a lot of fun living in the Bay Area. I remember when Dr. Ng, my professor at BYU, suggested that I apply to Stanford because I had a good chance getting accepted and it was close to home. I then had to ask where it was located and was surprised to find out it was in Palo Alto! After being accepted for a Computer Science masters program, Danielle and I moved back to the Bay Area for grad school, never thinking we would stay long past graduation. All we could "afford" here was one bedroom at my in-laws house! But the housing bubble popped at just the right time for us to take advantage of, and thanks to generous support from family, we bought our first house. And I found out the hard way that you shouldn't move into a new home without your wife. Danielle still teases me about moving into our first home without her!
A lot has happened since we moved into our Juniper Ave. home. We have had two additional kids born! Each a delight to our family. I've had jobs at two big companies, each one teaching me and helping me progress. I have learned how to rock climb and found a life long belay partner in Devon Child! I became a long-distance runner and conquered multiple marathons and even a 50-mile ultra! -- dragging my brothers Lynn and Weston along for the ride (and even Danielle a little bit). We have loved together, laughed together and cried together. It has been a great home for us.
And so, with many fond memories and dear associations, we bid farewell to California, looking ahead with excitement and some anxiety for what we will be like as Washingtonians!
And if you ever find yourself in the Seattle area please, come by for a visit. We would love to have you over and have a guest room at our new house just for you!
Jon
PS: For those interested I am planning on biking from here to Seattle 100% self supported. I'm a little nervous about the audacious goal I have set for myself so I would not object to a few Strava kudos to encourage me to keep on pedaling and not quit half way there.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/11123959
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkoberstein/
I will be leaving Google Mountain View and heading to the Seattle office to work for Cloud Billing. Danielle has been looking at houses for what seems like the past 4 years straight. In the end we decided to try our luck in a new state. It was a joint decision with the family to make the move out of the area to somewhere it might be a little easier to raise our 4 kids. While I am very excited for the change I am also very sad to be leaving behind my childhood home here in the Bay Area. I will miss frequent visits from Mom and Dad Koberstein and Severson and our various siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, and friends in the area. You will all be missed!
It has been a hard decision to move. We ended up choosing Seattle because we are able to find a place there that meets everything that we wanted. We really did try to find a way to stay in California. Everything we looked at in the Bay Area area required us to compromise something important to us. Long commute, worse schools, or tiny run down house. We chose an area in Redmond, WA that has all the good things we were looking for: schools like Danville, a commute like Palo Alto, and housing prices like Newark.
It's odd when you make a decision like moving. You try your best to figure out how it will change your life but I find it nearly impossible to actually know if a big life change is going to be better or worse. It seems like the things that have the biggest effect on your life are often so small that you cannot anticipate them fully. Maybe your neighbor just doesn't get along with you. Maybe your new job will be much more rewarding. Maybe your children will fall into a circle of friends who are up to no good. Hard to say. That said we are fairly confident that we are going to love Washington. So far it has been great every time we have visited. I already have a long list of things I want to do in the area and the people I have met have been nothing but kind. The excitement we feel about our new home makes the sadness we feel about leaving our old home easier to deal with.
It has been a lot of fun living in the Bay Area. I remember when Dr. Ng, my professor at BYU, suggested that I apply to Stanford because I had a good chance getting accepted and it was close to home. I then had to ask where it was located and was surprised to find out it was in Palo Alto! After being accepted for a Computer Science masters program, Danielle and I moved back to the Bay Area for grad school, never thinking we would stay long past graduation. All we could "afford" here was one bedroom at my in-laws house! But the housing bubble popped at just the right time for us to take advantage of, and thanks to generous support from family, we bought our first house. And I found out the hard way that you shouldn't move into a new home without your wife. Danielle still teases me about moving into our first home without her!
A lot has happened since we moved into our Juniper Ave. home. We have had two additional kids born! Each a delight to our family. I've had jobs at two big companies, each one teaching me and helping me progress. I have learned how to rock climb and found a life long belay partner in Devon Child! I became a long-distance runner and conquered multiple marathons and even a 50-mile ultra! -- dragging my brothers Lynn and Weston along for the ride (and even Danielle a little bit). We have loved together, laughed together and cried together. It has been a great home for us.
And so, with many fond memories and dear associations, we bid farewell to California, looking ahead with excitement and some anxiety for what we will be like as Washingtonians!
And if you ever find yourself in the Seattle area please, come by for a visit. We would love to have you over and have a guest room at our new house just for you!
Jon
PS: For those interested I am planning on biking from here to Seattle 100% self supported. I'm a little nervous about the audacious goal I have set for myself so I would not object to a few Strava kudos to encourage me to keep on pedaling and not quit half way there.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/11123959
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkoberstein/
posted by Jonathan @ 12:41 AM
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