Ten years a Texan

A small milestone slipped by on Nov. 15. It marked my 10-year anniversary as a resident of Texas.

Playing off the saying “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could,” I used to tell people that I was dragged here kicking and screaming. While that may be true, it’s also noteworthy that after 10 years I have not left.

I’m a native of Colorado. I never wanted to leave Colorado. I swore after living out of state for nine years during my first marriage that I would never leave Colorado again. On Nov. 15, 2005, I broke that vow and began my job as a copy editor at the Amarillo Globe-News.

Moving to Amarillo was tough. I went ahead of my family while they tied up loose ends and prepared our house to sell. I settled into an extended stay roach motel. I didn’t know a soul in Amarillo. It was cold and I was isolated and distraught at leaving everything I loved. Each night on the phone with my wife I would beg to come back home.

She kept encouraging me to stay, to move forward. Things had gone south for us in Colorado and she desperately wanted to get out and start over. Amarillo was to be that new start. It was our clean slate and charted a new course for our future. Sandy was dreaming of what could be. I was lamenting what had been.

Because our home in Colorado did not sell, it ended up in foreclosure.  As a result, we could not buy a new home in Amarillo. All we could afford to rent was a dump that the city actually condemned when we complained about it. It was big, drafty, bug-infested and located a block off noisy Interstate 40. How we managed to live there for three years I’ll never know. Ironically, when Sandy and the kids arrived, she started crying and wanted to go back home. I had to beg her to stay.

If you’ve ever been to Amarillo you know what a harsh wasteland the Texas Panhandle is. The people there are like gold. We made good friends. I think the climate and the isolation forces the people to be much friendlier and accommodating than in most places.

When we moved to the Houston area, it was easy to leave Amarillo but hard to leave the people. Arriving in Rosenberg was chaotic. We moved into Sandy’s grandfather’s house during the holidays. My family moved down a week ahead of me while I finished my job. When I arrived I was met not only by my family and Sandy’s grandfather, but also her parents and the families of her aunt and uncle. It took weeks to settle in after everyone left and the holidays were over.

We had intended our stay here to be relatively short. That was seven years ago. Since then, we have become very ingrained into the area. We have been active with our church, Boy Scouts and volunteer work at Brazos Bend State Park. For the last year we have been active with groups that do re-enactments of the Texas Revolution. I’m deep in the process of writing a book about them.

We have yet to get tired of exploring the region. We camp at different state parks, hang out at the beach, visit parks and historical sites and attend sporting events. There is so much to see and do down here that we could be busy for a lifetime trying to take it all in. And all of that is on top of the things I get to do and cover as a journalist.

It’s hard to believe that the 10-year (and seven-year) milestones have come by already. I may have come to Texas kicking and screaming but it just might be that way if I ever have to leave.