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Where You Want to Be

It's pretty interesting to ask why someone lives somewhere. More often than not, there's a really engaging story behind it. I posed the question to fellow blogger Donna and she gave a lengthy response on her site today. I posed it to her because she and her family live in Conway, Arkansas -- a town I had never heard of before. I wondered what drew her there: job, family, good place to raise kids, etc. Reading her response, along with a lengthy conversation over the weekend with a couple friends related to the topic, I got to thinking about why in live in Dallas. No, the town is not as cool or hip as Austin or Chicago, but this is where I want to be.

As much as I loved growing up in New Orleans and Houston, I always loved visiting Dallas. With three pairs of aunts and uncles living in the area, we always went there for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I don't know if it was the slightly colder temperatures, the farm country in Ennis or the building in downtown Dallas outlined in green light, but something felt really right about Dallas.

After four years in Fort Worth for college, I desired to make the trek across I-30 once I graduated. I didn't make the move until the then-home situation went south seven months later. Plus, the job prospects were more promising living in Dallas seven months later as compared to when I graduated. I was so fed up with the rampant "why bother going to Dallas? We've got everything here" attitude because the town's offerings were rather shortcoming to me. So when it seemed like it was the right time to move, I moved. The job prospects definitely paid off as I landed a producing gig the week I moved in. Coming upon five years living here, Dallas definitely is my second home.

I wouldn't go so far to say that I never want to live in another town, but I have no desire to move out of here anytime soon. If there was something very pressing to move out of here (job, family), I'd move. But Dallas, even with its flaws, is where I want to be at this stage in my life. Chicago is a great town as is Austin, but Dallas feels like where I should be.

Comments

Kev said…
I've been to Conway before. It's a nice little college town, and the road to get to it, heading north from I-30, is gorgeous--mountains, lakes, all that.

Donna didn't appear to mention that Conway is near the old settlement of Toad Suck, home of the Toad Suck Ferry. (I couldn't make this up if I tried...)
Rj said…
My main problem is being near a city, and having less places I want to go to than my rural (30,000 pop.) college town. Granted expo park has been picking up, but the rest of the town is dead, or not catering to me.
Ted said…
For me, San Francisco will always be my ideal city to live in. J and I lived there for a number of years and we just loved it. Cool people, great food, cool temps, and lots of great cultural stuff. Alas, we live outside the city now, but whenever we visit, we wish we could move back. However, there's one thing I don't miss about SF: lousy parking.
You do know that Conway, Arkansas is where Conway Twitty got half of his stage name from? :) [The other half was from Twitty, Texas.]

I'm not making this up. I swear. Google it!

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