Some moves are spontaneous. Others involve spreadsheets.

For Tim and Maina Geraghty, it was both. After 12 years in Chicago — the city where they met, got married, and had their first child — they began imagining what a different kind of future might look like. One with more breathing room, closer family ties, and a pace of life that made space for the things that mattered most.

Maina, ever the thoughtful planner, built a spreadsheet comparing cities — cost of living, job opportunities, access to family, quality of life. Greensboro kept rising to the top. And for Tim, it wasn’t unfamiliar territory. He grew up here, and while he left to explore the big city, the idea of returning to raise a family in the place that raised him started to feel not just appealing — but obvious.

Now settled, they’re rediscovering the joy of day-to-day life. Tim has plugged into Greensboro’s entrepreneurial scene through his involvement with Launch Greensboro, while Maina has made it her mission to explore every branch of the city’s public library system with their little ones in tow.

Returning to Greensboro wasn’t about going back. It was about choosing what comes next — with intention, with clarity, and with the kind of balance that spreadsheets can almost capture, but real life in the right place makes it possible.