This seems like as good a time as any to mention that, after seven years, Wednesday will be my last day at Jalopnik.

It’s incredibly bittersweet to go. Jalopnik is where I learned how to find my voice, how to call people out, how to be in a video, how to edit, how to even write a feature.

I started out as a weekend writer with some incredibly bad blogs, and I’m leaving it as the Interim Editor-in-Chief, still with some incredibly bad blogs.

It would be easy to point to one thing – one person – as the reason why I’m leaving. And that definitely, absolutely is a massive part of it. But the biggest reason is that it is simply time to move on, for me.

I’ve accomplished nearly everything I set out to do when I started at Jalopnik, and now it’s time to do new things.

Get my dream job? Check. Drive some dream cars? Check. Write some great things? Check. Write some awful things? Sadly, never got to do that, my takes are TOO HOT.

Create, produce, and host my very own car/travel TV show with the utterly, uniquely brilliant team of @raphaelorlove and @bypatrickgeorge? Check, check, and check.

Oh, and I also got to help organize a union, and negotiate its first contract! Extremely proud of that one. Put it on my tombstone.

But one of the things I’m most grateful for is the honor of editing some of the best people I’ve ever had the genuine pleasure of working with. Everything touched by @JasonTorchinsky makes me twitch with envy.

I got to sit on the call with @ryanfelton and a bunch of lawyers while Goodyear tried to halt his exposé of its coverup. I got to argue with @A_W_Gordon about trains. I got to watch @KristenLee absolutely UNLOAD on people.

It’s wild to even chat with the brilliant engineering mind of @DavidNTracy, let alone have him offer to fix your car’s broken window. I was forced to sit through @AlanisKing’s food takes, like that guy in A Clockwork Orange.

I got called out, and rightfully so, by @jtwestbro every damn day.

Getting to call @HamiltonNolan a colleague is something I’ll tell my grandkids about.

Same goes for people like @bubbaprog, @evannarcisse, @samer, @jawnita, @blacksnob, @banikarim, @emmacargo, @tcraggs22, @ashfein, @jimcooke, @WuLeeS, @drewmagary, @david_j_roth, @caityweaver, @gbluestone, and on and on and on.

Getting the opportunity to work at Gawker, even just in the same building as some of these people, has been inspirational.

(I’ll never forget my first day in the old leaky pirate ship that was the Gawker offices, looking very lost and confused, and @EvNarc, this pop culture GIANT, went out of his way to help me find the coffee. Me! A dumb jerk! I’ll be eternally grateful for that coffee.)

Offering me the weekend gig on April 4, 2013, was probably the biggest mistake @MattHardigree ever made, but it truly changed my life. Working at Jalopnik has often been a hellacious emotional rollercoaster, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

And before you worry about Jalopnik (yes, yes, yet ANOTHER person quitting), rest assured it’s in good hands.

The team of @JasonTorchinsky, @RaphaelOrlove, @AndrewPCollins, @TheErinMarquis, @ErikShilling, @jtwestbro, @ericammkay, @AdamMilt, and @DavidNTracy is still a murder’s row of towering journalists.

And while the company is in a hiring freeze at the moment, hopefully that will be lifted soon – and when it is, you’re in luck, as the site should still have a bunch of open positions.

If you’re reading this and on the fence, know that working at Jalopnik is probably the best career move I’ve ever made. It’s been wonderful, and I’ll miss working there like people miss an old friend. Forever.