New Orleans is home. And so is New York City.

Erfect, Brooklyn, NY

Everyone needs a constant.

I’ve been watching past seasons of LOST this year with my girlfriend, and on a recent Season 4 episode we saw Desmond almost lose his mind as he jumped between two different times, places and versions of himself, until he found his constant. *

I’ve found my constant. And New Orleans, you’re part of that, in a way you might never know or fully appreciate.

I love New Orleans in a way that’s hard to explain, loving and hating you for the exact same reasons, at the exact same time. I feel that everyone in New Orleans understands that, and can tell a story about an amazing, sensuous, vibrant experience in New Orleans wrapped within a “wait, what just happened?” moment.

We acknowledge the imperfections, we embrace the “fierce paroxysms of happiness in spite of our troubled circumstances”, and we live. “The sweet is never as sweet without the sour”, something New Orleans knows all too well; the contradictions make the charms richer, more meaningful, more human, creating the tightropes we walk every day.

You understand that.

But I hope you understand it’s a tightrope I simply can’t walk with you every day.

New Orleans, you’re still home, but starting today, so is New York City. I’ll be splitting my time between NYC and New Orleans, maintaining a home in both cities, investing my time into professional opportunities in NYC, bridging NYC and NOLA professionally and socially, building a life across both communities.

Let me be clear: I’m still the devoted “unofficial New Orleans ambassador” I’ve become in seven short, amazing, rich months.

Since I moved to New Orleans in December 2009, I co-created a newsletter (NOLAlicious), got involved with the New Orleans startup ecosystem, curated the New Orleans Startup Digest Newsletter (since taken over by Chris Schultz), assisted with campaigns to help build awareness and financial support for the Gulf Oil Spill response (Gulf Aid, Gulf Coast Benefit Concerts, Citizen Gulf, and a Pepsi Refresh Project in partnership with Help Portrait), and tirelessly evangelized about New Orleans, talking about the charms and opportunities throughout my travels, talks and writing.

That won’t stop. I’ll stand up for you every single day. I’ll just be doing a lot more of it from outside your environs. I hope you understand that New York City is simply full of too many professional opportunities that I just can’t pass up right now.

So New Orleans, I’ll see you soon. New York City, I’ll see you today. Let’s go.

NYC! Are you ready? Drop me a line, we’ve got a lot to discuss and do. Much more, to come.

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* No spoilers of future episodes! If I misinterpret, let me figure that out as we keep watching…