This is happening...

Dear friends, family, coworkers, and people who I don't remember meeting but I'm still Facebook friends with you:

After living 25 of my 26 years inside the beltway, I'm leaving the East Coast to start a new chapter of my life. Immediately after the election, I will join The Story of Stuff Project in Berkeley, CA, as their Director of Online Organizing and I'll be packing up the cats and taking them on a non-stop flight to SFO.

This decision is unexpected, scary, and exciting.

(Almost) everything I've ever known is in DC -- my family, my memories, my career, my life. It'll be a big transition.

But I can't wait to get started in San Francisco. I'm excited to live in a new timezone, to work in a really small office again, and to never having to deal with humidity ever again.

To those of you who, over the past year, I've said, "Let's grab a beer!" or "When are we catching up?" -- now is our time to do so. 

I'll miss you all and, remember, SFO is just one Virgin America nonstop flight away.

Love,

Nicole

Overcome with emotion.

I never blog. I never blog at work. I never blog about policy. But, right now, I'm doing all three.

I'm sitting at my desk at work completely overwhelmed with emotion and tearing up over the announcement that the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act.

I don't have a precondition or cancer or any serious ailment, but I've had a rocky relationship with health care for the past few years.

I lost health insurance at the age of 22 when I no longer qualified to be on my dad's health insurance because I wasn't in school full time. I was working an hourly job at 39.5 hours a week while writing my thesis and prepping for graduation.

When I graduated 7 months later, I moved to New York where I found my first Grown Up job. I didn't have health insurance though because my company required that you be employed for 6 months before providng. 3 weeks after I became eligible, I was laid off. My insurance card came in the mail 2 weeks after my last day.

I moved back to DC a few months later and took a job at a nonprofit. Again, I had to wait several months before becoming insured. I reached the probationary period and realized I couldn't afford to be insured. My salary was so low, I couldn't afford the $200 a month rate and made the choice not to get insurance.

I was laid off again about 18 months ago in the winter and did everything I could to stop a cold as soon as I got the sniffles. If I felt sinus pressure or a tickle in my throat, I rushed to the pharmacy to get over the counter meds to stop any potential germs from becoming a full-blown cold. Sometimes I was successful, but other times I was out for a week at a time hoping my body would fix itself before I got pneumonia.

Now, at 26, I have reliable health insurance for the first time in 4 years. While I don't need help getting insurance anymore, I understand what it's like to no longer fear a sniffle or an earache. That relief is life changing and I'm so incredibly happy for the millions of Americans who won their lives back today.