I went through many a movie phase as a young child, watching them over and over and over again. In my case, I think they were all musicals. There were the trills of Snow White in kindergarten, the self-discovery of Anastasia, and somewhere around age 7 or 8, the hard knock life of Annie. I watched that thing (and listened to the soundtrack) enough times, that I'm sure my whole family knew the words. The sun was always going to come up tomorrow.
In that movie, there's a throwaway line when Annie and Daddy Warbucks go exploring the big apple and see a show. An actress on the big stage sings "NYC, just got here this morning. Three bucks, two bags, one me."
I've always loved that idea. Not necessarily New York (I am very intimidated by New York which doesn't make sense because I navigate major cities by myself for work all the time), but the idea of moving to a new place, making a fresh start.
It feels very adult. Angel and I moved to Austin about 6 months ago. I kept my same job, Angel started looking for a new one once we got here, and neither of us has any family here in Austin. We kind of just wanted to. We toyed with the idea - Austin is affordable for this Californian, it has a thriving tech scene, and a growing economy. We visited in October, and fell in love. And in April, we pulled the trigger, and made the move.
I love the city of Austin, for many reasons. But I love living here mostly because it was a decision I got to make, as opposed to a decision I had to make. We got to make our own adventure. Be the authors of our own lives. We got to do our own research on apartments and neighborhoods and moving methods and internet providers and all the things. It sounds awfully mundane, and it might be, but it's also incredibly exciting for me.
When people ask what we like to do for fun, we usually just say that we explore. Trying a new park or a new place to swim or a new restaurant is really fun for us both.
So I live here now. And crazily enough, it even feels like home.
