It’s been a week since I left Ablr, the company I started and led for the past six years and stepped into my new role as Director of the North Carolina Division of Services for the Blind. Taking this job was not a decision I made lightly. To understand why I made it, you must go back further than six years – back to when I was a teenager applying to college and I had no idea how many times I’d leave North Carolina, and how many times I’d find my way back.

Senior year of high school, I assumed I’d end up at NC State and stay close to home. That was the plan. Then I didn’t get in, and with limited options, I packed up for Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond instead.

My body was in Virginia, but my heart never left North Carolina. I felt that so strongly that I once emailed Bojangles, my favorite fried chicken restaurant, born and bred in North Carolina, just to tell them how much I missed having one nearby, since there wasn’t a single location near me in Richmond. They wrote back with a kind note, a T-shirt, and a hat. I still think about that!

North Carolina is where I was born and where I spent most of my life, aside from a handful of years in Tokyo and New Jersey when my dad’s job relocated our family when I was in elementary school. Even then, North Carolina was always home base – the place we measured everything else against.

After failing out of VCU, I made my way back home and moved in with my high school friends who were going to NC State. Eventually, I found my own way into NC State and graduated. But right after graduation, I convinced myself that nobody who was blind could build a career in the Raleigh area, since there was no real public transportation, and this was long before Uber existed. So, I left again this time for Bangalore, India, believing I might never be able to come home and build a life here.

Over the years that followed, home kept showing up in unexpected ways. I remember looking out car windows in Bangalore, New York City, and Douala, Cameroon, and missing the oak trees that line the streets back in North Carolina. It’s a strange thing to be homesick for trees, but I was!

Nine years ago this month, I came back to North Carolina – this time with a wife, a newborn baby, and no career options waiting for me. When I landed a job with LCI, it felt like a lifeline, exactly when I needed one. I poured myself into LCI’s mission of creating meaningful employment for people who are blind and visually impaired, because in a very real sense, I was still trying to create that for myself.

That same conviction carried straight through into the work we built at Ablr. It was never just a job to me. It became my purpose.

Saying goodbye to Ablr was one of the hardest things I’ve done – I shed more tears than I’ll fully admit to! But I made this change for something bigger than me. Making North Carolina the best place in the country for people who are blind, visually impaired, and DeafBlind to live, work, and thrive!

This past week, my office building was under repair, so I ended up spending time in different buildings alongside the people and programs that make up the division I’ll be leading. What felt like an inconvenience turned into a gift – it gave me an early, honest look at the people and services I might not have encountered so quickly otherwise.

I believed in my heart this was the right decision long before I took it. My head took a little longer to catch up! But after this first week, I know without question that it was the right time and the right move, and I’m genuinely excited about what’s ahead!

I loved what I built at Ablr, and I’ll always be proud of that work. But I love my home state more! North Carolina is consistently ranked one of the best places in the country for business and to live, and I want that to be true, for my community too! Making this state the best place in the country for people who are blind, visually impaired, and DeafBlind isn’t just a goal, it’s an impact I feel honored to spend this next chapter serving!