When do you know you have to leave? (Dallas, San Antonio: fit in, month to)

[austintilelady]

Does anyone know how hard it is to leave your home town?
Where is home now and what makes it your home?
When do you know you have to leave?
I am in Austin now and I like it but its just not home. There is no home now.

[centralaustinite]

It took five years until Austin felt like home, ten years until I realized that there was no where else I would rather be.

Give it time.
(I spent at least two years wondering what the heck had I done?!)

[Mckellyb]

After having Dallas be my hometown for 28 years, I just became sick of the traffic, and the overall congestion of the town.

The lack of scenery was a big part of it, too.

Denver was next. Loved it...loved the house we found on two acres, on a mountain @ 9K feet, with a family of deer which bedded down every year just off our front porch. Couldn't make a good enough living to stay the rest of my life.

Changed to IT, went to Portland, OR. Hated every second of it after about 6 months.

Vegas for the next three years, though not in the summer. If you don't clean rooms, serve drinks, wash dishes, drive a cab, or deal cards, you'll starve. Actually, you'll starve anyway, it'll just take longer.

Austin appears to take some time to, not appreciate, but to warm up to. We're working on it. Been here 5 1/2 months, and we're not there, yet, but you couldn't pay me enough to move back to Dallas. Ft. Worth, maybe, but Dallas, no. I'd go back to Denver in a heartbeat, too.

It's more of a feeling, than anything. Are you happy, is there enough stuff you like in the town/city which appeals to your entertainment side, do you like the people.... Things like this.

I'm happy to be back to good Tex-Mex, BBQ, and people who aren't rude all the time.

[CravenClan]

Home is Southern California for me, Temecula for 22 years, and I am 34. We have lived in and around So. Cal all my life, i was born and raised here.

Do i LOVE it NO, would i like to leave, YES. But where...where do you go when you have been in one place so long, how then do you LOVE somewhere and be completely happy? I think happiness is with in, in any place, i am just not there yet.

The reasons i don't like Ca. are for more than why i do like it, but i question if it will be better somehwere else, and my HEART says YES it will.....Just have to find that new place to call home, and MAKE it work.

Think about the reasons why you left your "home"and maybe you will find a brighter side to it all, i know i would if i were leaving here...(hopefully next year, i just gotta find that right place)

Good Luck!!

[Cardiff Giant]

My wife and I grew up on Long Island. We left in '93 so she could attend grad school in Ann Arbor. While Ann Arbor was nice we knew it was temporary so it never felt like home. I always felt a little out of place there, even though I made some great friends that I'm still in contact with 10 years later.

After grad school, we headed back east to Manhattan where we lived for 7 great years. We didn't want to stay in the City forever, so we explored buying a home back on Long Island. This wasn't really an option for us, even with a nice income. Starter homes for 400k, and those were nowhere near our jobs in New York. I didn't want my wife commuting 4-5 hours a day. I didn't want to be on the rat race treadmill that is life in NY, so we decided to explore options.

My older brother moved to Dallas in the early 90s. We would come visit occasionally and were amazed at how awesome the people in Texas were. That combined with the mild winters, no state tax as well as many other reasons, we decided to visit Austin to see if the hype was true. This was around 01-02.

On our first visit to Austin, I was like, "it's nice but I don't see what the fuss is." Austin is a place that grows on you, though. On our second or third visit, I found a story on an old friend of ours in the Chronicle (she's a performer) who I had no idea was living in Austin. We lost touch when she went upstate for college. We hadn't seen her since the 80s, so I wrote her a note and she called us right away. It was so great to chat and catch up.

On our next visit, her and her husband showed us around and we were sold. Austin has felt very much like home from the start and I don't think we're ever leaving. Never say never, though....

[springbean]

We left Colorado 2 years ago after living there most of my life, 26 years, and I'm 32. I will always hold a special place in my heart for Colorado, I grew up in the foothills (Evergreen) and later moved to Denver, where both of my children were born. My brother, SIL and nieces still live there, so I'll always have an excuse to visit but only in the SUMMER.

I was down right done with the winters. They are no where near as bad as winters in Chicago, Cleveland etc (wet cold, gray skies, snow that sticks around for the entire season) Colorado is an amazing place to be in the winter, but winter lasts the bulk of the year. Spring and Fall are almost non-existent, and while summer is beautiful, it only lasts 3-3.5 months of he year.

Traffic was getting progressively worse, homes were getting more expensive, cost of living in general was getting ridiculous. For us, it was a quality of life issue. Is commuting 1-1.5 hours to work everyday, only to get home to the family a few minutes before the kids go to bed, worth it? Just to be living month to month? For us it wasn't. We knew it was time to move. Our kids were young enough to not be pulled away from friends and a school they were attached to.

It's like falling in love, you just "know" when it's right.

[traceyr13]

I lived in Rhode Island (the towns aren't that important when the entire state could fit in the Austin/San Antonio area, lol) for 20 years. My husband lived there for 32. It never felt like "home" for either of us (interestingly, we both felt at home in Washington DC, where we went to college...but cost of living prohibited us from moving there permanently).

We moved to Austin 2 years ago. The first month or two we were euphoric with our "new home". The next 6 months we completely regretted our decision and wanted to go back to New England. Now, after 2 years, it doesn't feel like "home", but it does feel better than living in Rhode Island.

[CravenClan]

Springbean

Did you move to Austin?? If so, how do you like it??

[springbean]

Originally Posted by CravenClan

Springbean

Did you move to Austin?? If so, how do you like it??

I love it here. But I think a real problem people have when they move (anywhere not just Austin) is the whole "Well in CA we did it like this" or "It was so much cheaper in AZ" or "The houses were much nicer when I lived in IL." Don't we move for something new and different? So if you're thinking of moving here for a new adventure, I say go for it! If you are looking for a place "just" like where you're coming from I say no way, don't move.

Colorado is home to me, I moved there when I was five, I grew up in the mountains, camping, biking, horseback riding etc. those are things I am very thankful for. But a lot of my experiences had to do with my parents not just my location. I knew many people in CO that had never been to the mtns.! How is that possible? It's like living in Paris and never seeing the Eiffel Tower! Basically, what I'm saying is that it's whatever you make it to be.

Austin is like a perfect mix between Denver and Boulder, but with more water and much milder winters. If you are a "true" Coloradan you will know what I mean by "perfect" mix, because in my opinion I wouldn't want to be at either extreme (Denver or Boulder)!

Do you live in CO now? If so, where?

This got kind of long winded but if you have anymore questions let me know!

[Birdola]

I left my hometown of Chicago after being there my whole life (32 years). I love Chicago, but was very tired of the weather and the rat race. My husband loved it, too, but he isn't from there and wasn't as attached to it. He was also tired of working 70 hour weeks - leaving the house before my daughter woke up and getting home after she went to bed (because Chicago traffic is so horrific). We lived 10 miles from his office - it took him 45 minutes to an hour to get to work.

Also, the winters are pretty brutal and last a very long time. There's nothing to do there in the winter, so everyone just eats & drinks.

We finally decided to make the move last year - to Tucson, AZ. What a horrible mistake. We hated it. It was so polar opposite of Chicago and didn't feel like home at all. I missed the grass, the water, and having neighbors!

So...our journey has now lead us to Austin. While it doesn't feel like home yet (we've only been here a month), it definitely has a lot of the qualities we want in a city. There's stuff going on downtown, but it's not too overwhelming and traffic's not too bad. The people are great, the schools are good, we love live music, and no state tax!

However, I will say that I miss the food in Chicago terribly. While we have found pretty good food here, it doesn't even come close.