Austin Bound - Looking Back

Right out of college, my husband and I faced difficult times in finding a job. For some reason, in 1992, no one wanted to hire college graduates. We applied everywhere, but were leaning towards Houston or Dallas as our hopeful landing spots. Houston would be in his stomping grounds, Dallas would be closer to my family and an area in which I’d always wanted to live.

Ironically, we both got interviews and job offers in Austin instead. Austin. I knew no one there and knew nothing about it except for short visits for UIL State competitions in sports and band in high school. It was pretty enough, but we didn’t have friends are family there. Plus, we both hated U.T. with a passion. Don’t judge us–it’s a prerequisite for being a true Texas Tech Red Raider.

Still, we moved there, happy to have jobs. We could figure the rest out as we went, right?

I’ll never forget the first time I came to Austin. My husband (then fiancee) had started work and we’d found our apartment. I was bringing wedding gifts after my bridal shower and had the entire back side of my car packed with things. I pulled up downtown in 7th Street where my husband was working in a fantastic highrise. He’d already prepared me about panhandlers, but obviously not well enough.

As I’m digging through my purse for meter change, I hear someone yelling through my closed window. I look up startled and just in time to see a scary looking street person wailing at me. She proceeded to tap on my window frantically and cried, “Please, help me! Heeeeeelp me!”

Perhaps you will judge me now, for not rolling down my window and giving her some cash or change. However, I was a 22-year-old small town girl with little in the way of street smarts. Plus, I had my entire car filled with 5-piece place settings and other wedding what-not. This was all new to me and I was terrified.

I sat there frozen and trying to avoid eye contact until the woman realized she was going to not get anything out of me. She waved her hands back at me as if to say, “Ah, to hell with you,” and as quickly as her act had begun, she shuffled away a few cars down to beg from someone else. I quickly got out of my car and sprinted the other direction to my husband’s office, in a nervous sweat.

The next year or so, these incidents became quite common. My husband would come home with tales of seeing someone’s arm sticking out of a shrub by his parking spot, where they were sleeping it off. We started going out downtown with our friends to 6th street and got used to the Austin culture. We even had our favorite street performers/artists.

We lived in Austin for five years. In the course of those years, my husband switched jobs a couple times and so did I. I worked for ridiculously low pay and very long hours with what would become some of my favorite people in this world, even to this day. My company was young and fun, hosting keggers on the roof of our building every Friday for its underpaid staff and amazing Christmas parties that took over a local hotel and all it’s ballrooms every year.

We considered ourselves Conservative Republicans and convinced ourselves that we never really fit in to Austin’s liberal mindset, even though we had amazing fun at my husband’s company picnics, winning beach volleyball tournaments with friends, and hitting great happy hours and parties. On Halloween, my company’s entire staff would dress up in the most crazy costumes and we’d all go to lunch.

Even still, we left for Plano, Texas, which we would learn is the polar opposite of Austin in every way. Some of my more devout Austinite friends told us we were crazy and even acted like we were traitors, leaving for a cookie cutter subdivision where mailboxes were filled with free magazines on the best local plastic surgeons. But, we felt we were moving to where we would feel more at home.

Our time in Plano would be much shorter, only three-and-half years. And, while I did not hate it while we lived there, I found myself making bi-yearly trips back to see my Austin friends. I did not want to admit it, especially to my hubby who seemed to like Dallas, but I missed A-town. I missed it a lot.

Since that time, we’ve now lived outside of Houston for almost a decade. Houston has stuck with us and it’s a good fit, I think. And, until my daughter was born a few years ago, I still made my bi-yearly treks to Austin. It’s hard to describe, but every time I pull into that town, I relax. And, I think living there when I did also had a lasting impression on me. I still think I’m fiscally a conservative who likes less government, but I’m definitely more of a liberal when it comes to social issues like human rights. I love live music and miss having that at most every restaurant or bar like they do in Austin.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my 10 Reasons I Will Always Love Austin, Texas…