July 23rd, 2010 by Hoopleton

Settling in is the hard part. But we made it, no worse for wear.

My bearings are still set to Chicago. The Midwest still my home country. I rarely realize how far south I am. The temperatures are high but I’m acclimated for summer. The insect swarms are new, so is the prevalence of greenery.

Mainly I spend my days scouring the job boards and staring at her who brought me here. I have, I think, come to understand how blessed I am. I feel her belly and the life growing inside and I think it inconceivable that I had something to do with it, no matter how small.

I’m changing. Growing perhaps. I can’t imagine my life before all this or how every event of my life didn’t lead to this. I look for time to write, but I’m happy to let the days slip by into memory. For the first time I feel as though I’ve made the world better than I left it and in that there is nothing but eternal gratitude.

The other day we drove to the capital building and generally drifted through the streets of Austin. The city is booming. The grid can’t contain it. Skyscrapers rise in days. Highways in mere hours. I imagine myself returning to Austin ten years from now and feeling like I’d never been here before.

It may be cliché but everything really is bigger here. The food is fresher. The air cleaner. The optimism of the West energizes every square foot. The promise of the New South drives every conversation. Johnson era liberalism mixes equal parts with fiscal conservatism. The economy is probably better here than any place in the whole of the United States of America.

But it’s still not Chicago. I doubt any city could replicate the factory thunder of the great Midwestern Metropolis. I doubt any city would ever want to. Life is slower here. Easier. Kinder.

I’m still getting acclimated. Still settling in. For now I imagine it’s too soon to tell.