austin.

Some kid called me “lady” at the pool last week. Raise your hand if you saw that one coming. Yeah, me either.

Then again, a day later a woman asked me if I was in high school. Go figure.

None of that has much to do with my life right now, but I digress.

I just moved to Austin and due to my surprising lack of internet access, I’m a little behind on the blog updates. Here’s my feeble attempt to catch up.

Two weeks ago when I packed the bare minimum of things I thought I’d need in Austin, I’ll admit that I had mixed feelings. I was excited to be moving to a new place (where I knew only one person, who I hadn’t spoken to in four years), starting a new job, meeting new people, and starting the next chapter in my life. I was also terrified. Terrified of the future, of being a grown up, of uprooting myself to a city I didn’t know with people I didn’t know and having to make it on my own. But I think all of that is part of taking chances in life. There’s no excitement without a little bit of fear, just as there is no real joy without the acknowledgment of pain. At least that’s how my mind works.

Now that I’m here, the fear is gone. I’m genuinely happy in this city. Sure, it’s not perfect. Yes, there’s some traffic on my way to and from work, but it’s nothing compared to Houston, and the worst part about the city for me so far is how terrible the drivers are. And yes, I’ve gotten lost on numerous occasions despite the GPS my dad bought for me. But even when I’m lost, I’m more upset at how my GPS is shouting directions at me as I pass the street I’m meant to turn on than I am about being lost in the first place. Even when I don’t know where I am, I’m just happy to be there. Except for the time I ended up near the Travis County Correctional Facility in East Austin. That one wasn’t as much fun. But I had been driving for so long, I’m not even sure I was still in Austin, technically speaking.

Did I mention I’ve made some new friends? The girl I’m living with is one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met. She and my one friend mentioned above have been carting me around introducing me to new people, who I’ve subsequently become friends with. And all of these friends have been nothing short of wonderful. The same goes for the people I work with. I remember starting my job wondering if I was going to be lonely for a little while until people warmed up to me. After all, most of them had been there for a long time and the rest had all started the week before me and had already gotten to know each other. But everyone has been nothing but nice to me. I haven’t had to eat lunch by myself, and we’ve even hung out after work. It also doesn’t hurt that my office (I know, I have an office. With a door. With my name on it. I think it’s weird too) is in a high traffic area, so people come by and talk to me a lot. Plus, the interns (who are mostly in grad school or law school, and are my age or older) sit within earshot of me, so even if we’re not technically in the same room, we may as well be. I’ve listened to more conversations about the World Cup in the past week than I ever have before. And I joined a slow pitch softball team with the rest of the people on staff! We had our first two games on Thursday, I got lost on my way to the park so I missed most of the first game (cue the Travis County Correctional Facility), but I had a lot of fun hanging out with the rest of the staff, even if I feel like I’m twelve years old around them. Keep in mind that they’re not much older than me, but I lack the life experience that they have. Who knows. I’ll catch up. In the meantime, I’m just having fun. I’m enjoying my life and the people I’m sharing it with, and I’m enjoying all of the things Austin has to offer. A few of the interns and I went on Wednesday to Blues on the Green in Zilker Park, and it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. There’s also an Irish pub downtown (I thought of Liz), a delicious coffee place down the block from where I work called Little City, and I even heard about a Glee-along at the Alamo Drafthouse (Jenna, mark your calendar for July 29th).

I feel like I’ve spent most of this post gushing about how awesome my life is, and let me assure you that it hasn’t been perfect by any means, but I feel like for the first time in a long time I’m more than just content. Maybe it’s because it’s all so new. Maybe some of it comes with the fact that I didn’t expect to like it so much here. Being an Aggie, I never really thought I’d move to Austin. Not only that, I never thought I’d move to Austin and find so many Aggies here with me. I figured I would at least learn to like living here, but I definitely didn’t think I’d love it so much.