Woke Up As The Real Life Hannah Montana, An HQ Autobiography

  Hannah Montana once said “Who would of thought that a girl like me would double as a superstaaaaarrrrrrrrr?” and while I may not be doubling as a superstar, I am definitely living two lives. One on the East Coast, and one on the West. So here I am in Raleigh-Durham Airport with my usual Bruegger’s Asiago bagel with plain cream cheese and black coffee, waiting to fly once again to San Francisco; back to the Curtsy Headquarters where the other half of my life takes place.  

  I always thought I was an adventurous person; someone who could go anywhere on a whim and try any new place once. But after studying abroad in Italy, and later packing everything and moving to Atlanta after graduation, I realized one thing: I love my home. I love Raleigh. I love my family. I love my friends. I even love the North Carolina weather (call me crazy, because here it certainly is). Queue: Working remotely for Curtsy HQ. This opportunity gives me the chance to love my home and also love California. It’s a complete challenge to my personality to be living 3,000 miles away from my office in San Francisco, California. Granted, working remote means working 3 hours ahead of the office and lots of video calls, but it also means traveling to an incredible city to work with awesome people each month. There isn’t anything better than waking up, going downstairs to make breakfast and then walking three steps into the office each morning. In Raleigh, my ‘office’ is the desk in my room or a coffee shop downtown. In San Francisco, it’s at HQ with six other people (that I also live with while I’m there), two blocks from the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. Each day at lunch, I go for a run either along the bridge over Falls Lake or along the bay in San Francisco. Either way, they’re pretty hard views to beat. And at the end of the workday, I get to try a trendy new restaurant in California or cook a delicious meal with my friends, boyfriend or family in Raleigh. Talk about the dream job.  

  Living 3,000 miles away from my office allows me to continue educating myself with more than just work every day. I am constantly learning new ways to better myself, how to become a better traveler, becoming comfortable in situations I usually am extremely uncomfortable in, and smaller things like time management. Working from home means that I can hang out with my dog during my work day, but it also means that I have to make sure I’m doing my job without the supervision I always thought I would have. It has allowed me to become an independent person, confident that the work I am doing is having an impact on an entire company. But this is more than just a job. It’s a career working with a startup on top of working from home, which means that I am completely changing the way I live my life. We are working to create a community of girls that help one another, and that’s exactly how we choose to live here at Curtsy HQ. Every day we encourage each other, challenge each other, and inspire each other to be the best versions of ourselves for this company, and I couldn’t be more grateful that they took a chance for me to be a part of this journey, even from 3,000 miles away. So thank you Curtsy, for giving me two families and two homes. You’ve been nothing short of spectacular, and it’s only the beginning.