As I drove south down the interstate from Seattle, towering evergreens lining the way in which on both aspect, I could not assist however surprise if I would made the proper alternative.
I used to be on my option to be part of my new fiancé in San Antonio. We met at a live performance in Seattle a couple of yr earlier than, and fell immediately in love. We danced a lot of the night time, talked lengthy after the lights went up, and deliberate our first date for the subsequent afternoon.
After nearly a yr of a long-distance romance, he proposed. I used to be over the moon and could not look forward to us to be collectively.
There was just one downside: He nonetheless had a yr to go earlier than incomes his undergraduate diploma from the College of Texas at San Antonio, and I used to be one yr into my dream job within the advertising and marketing division at Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Earlier than beginning my life in Texas, I made a number of profession strikes and backup plans
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I cherished my job and my coworkers, however I used to be 31, and my organic clock was banging like a jackhammer. I would at all times wished a household, and did not assume I might stand one other yr away from the love of my life.
I additionally knew I used to be taking a threat giving up the whole lot for somebody I would recognized for lower than a yr, and my pals have been giving me the aspect eye over it.
So earlier than I known as the shifting firm, I began my very own boutique communications agency, landed my first huge consumer in San Antonio, and advised myself that if it did not work out, I might at all times promote my engagement ring and move back to Seattle alone.
As I crossed the state line into Oregon with my cat Queenie subsequent to me in her provider and the whole lot I owned crammed into my tiny Honda Civic, I felt anxious, keen, and excited to begin my new life in Texas.
I could not consider my luck in already touchdown a juicy mission with my first huge consumer — certainly one of San Antonio’s main public-relations firms — and appeared ahead to assembly my new teammates in individual.
I additionally noticed the transfer as a chance to attach with my roots since my dad’s household was from the Texas Panhandle, and he lived there as a toddler. I appeared ahead to studying extra about his dwelling state.
After I arrived in San Antonio three days later, my fiancé was ready for me in our new house. He’d simply picked up the keys earlier that day, and there wasn’t a single piece of furnishings in your entire place, so we slept in a sleeping bag on the ground. I used to be so glad, it’d as effectively have been the 4 Seasons.
I instantly jumped into my work, started networking, and began making pals. By July, I used to be pregnant with our first baby, and 9 months later, our daughter was born.
Our child woman was just a few weeks previous after we realized that my new husband’s firm, the place he labored whereas ending college, deliberate to close down their native plant, and he could be laid off inside six months.
The information was unsettling, however it coincided with my need to be nearer to my household on the West Coast now that I used to be a brand new mother.
I additionally by no means felt completely at dwelling in Texas. I missed the tradition, pure magnificence, and familiarity of the West Coast and could not wait to get again.
We did not keep in Texas for very lengthy, however I am nonetheless so glad I made the transfer
Amber Campbell
So just some months after my then-husband graduated — a couple of yr and a half after I arrived in Texas, we packed a U-Haul, and headed west with our 6-month-old daughter, similar to my grandmother did with my dad 50 years prior.
Wanting again, I am shocked to see how a lot I gave as much as transfer to Texas — my dream job, a metropolis I cherished, and the life I would inbuilt Seattle. Nevertheless, I am additionally grateful for what I obtained in return: I had my daughter, built a successful business from scratch in a brand new metropolis, and made pricey pals I am nonetheless in contact with at present.
I additionally realized loads about my dad’s aspect of our household, like why they cherished fried okra and mentioned “y’all” though they lived in California.
Texas did not final, and neither did the wedding, however my willingness to risk everything for love — even when it did not work out the way in which I deliberate — is what made the remainder of my life attainable. I am nonetheless glad I obtained in my Honda Civic and drove south all these years in the past.
