It was a bit difficult hitting the Compose Entry link in my account to write this, because this will be one of the last blog posts I write as an SEOmoz staff member. At the end of this month and after two and half fantastic years, I'm leaving SEOmoz and Seattle. It's amazingly hard to know how to write something like this: I want to get across so much and there's no way to word it at all cleverly. Like how this is one of the toughest things I've ever had to do because I just love it here, but that I'm also excited about where I'm going next. And how I struggle a lot with the fact that my life wouldn't even resemble what it is now if I hadn't replied to a Craigslist ad for an entry-level "SEO" (whatever the hell that was) at 2am a couple of months after I graduated from college. God knows what normally happens to twenty-two year olds with English degrees, but I know that they don't usually end up with one of the greatest jobs around. I owe SEOmoz so much. This couldn't get much more difficult if it tried.

However, as do a lot people, I've reached a point for entirely personal reasons where I have to move on to the next chapter of my life (and a quite exciting chapter it is). I am moving to London to join Ayima Search Marketing, home of Sphinn editor and great friend of mine, Rob Kerry. Even though the answer to "what is my first task going to be?" was "learn to use a Mac," I can't wait to get stuck into work over there. I'm joining their team as a search marketer and I'll be working with their clients and projects... apparently only on Apple computers!

As trite as it sounds, I still do look around every so often and marvel at how lucky I am. Firstly, I am constantly astonished that Rand didn't read my atrocious candidacy blog post and pass me up for a less-idiotic competitor. I love it that I was sent to my first search conference--Pubcon in 2006--six weeks after joining the company: talk about being thrown into the deep end! This job has taken me to Australia, New York, Las Vegas and London... and SEO will take me back there again, only this time with a one-way ticket.

Just to be sentimental, I want to take a short trip down memory lane and document my favourite memories from my time here (and believe me, I'll miss lots because there have been many fantastic moments!):

• I had been drinking when Rand called me to tell me that I was one of the final six candidates for this job, and I was asleep when Rand called me to tell me I had got the job.
• One week after Scott was hired, he and I found ourselves browsing Funny2.com late on a Friday afternoon. On the aptly-named /huh.htm, we discovered a couple of ridiculous one-liners that resulted in both of us being completely incapacitated by laughter. The culprits were: "I wasn't rich like you guys. I didn't eat gold or have a flying pony", "Cross my legs and hope to die!" and "He won't last, he's just a flash in the pants." We did, however, hear Rand say to someone, "well at least it seems like they're getting on okay..."
• When we hired Mel, we knew he was from Texas. We were a bit fascinated by the idea that we'd hired someone from the South, but were sad to discover that he didn't have a particularly strong accent. However, the first time he said "y'all" in the office, we all did a bit of a double-take and stared at him, impressed, for a couple of seconds too long.
• After the inaugural SMX Advanced in Seattle in 2007, Lisa Ditlefsen visited our office. We were all very hungover (some of us more than others. Ahem.) from the SEOmoz party the night before. Sitting around eating sushi in our old office's kitchen, Lisa took a look into one of our little rooms, which served as Whiteboard Studios. We used to own an awful Yahoo!-purple velvet sofa and it was stored in the little room along with Scott's video equipment and studio lights. Lisa came out of the room looking horrified. "Erm," she said, "what happens in there?" I think she still has a sneaking suspicion that we were doing some adult work on the side.
• Bringing a large version of this picture up on Yahoo!'s large monitor in the exhibit hall floor at Pubcon in 2007 by accident, right after being scolded for checking Gmail on a Yahoo! computer. That's Mel, of "y'all" fame.
  
• You Q&A folks have provided some great one-liners throughout my time here. I've already documented some of them here, but since the publication of that post, there have been more. My recent favourite began, "I always seem to get to ask dumb questions (no comments please) and here is another one." However, my all-time favourite is definitely the question that ended with, "Excuse me I am French."
• Even though I have worked here since September 18, 2006, my father still cannot pronounce SEOmoz. The best we get out of him is, "SEOahhh... SEOahhh..." So, of course, I have joined another company with a name that he cannot say. Explaining that it's just "Eye Ee Ma" hasn't helped.
• SMX Sydney:
  
  
  
  
  
• Partnering with Distilled:
  
  
  

I have loved my time at SEOmoz more than anyone could hope to love any job, let alone their first. Becoming a Mozzer was the best thing ever to happen to me, right from my first telephone interview to now. Rand, thank you so much for hiring me and keeping me around, and thanks to all of you for being part of the SEOmoz community during my time here. As well as at Ayima, you'll continue to find me on the SEO Chicks blog and, in the near future, at the back of LondonSEO events, Guinness in hand. See you there :)