The Californian moved to Texas and back: he was not cheap, obsessed with politics

Temecula is the best place I have ever lived. I was not at all unhappy here. But my brother, who I’m very close to, has decided to move to Texas in 2022.

At the same time, I was told that as a teacher I would have to get the COVID-19 vaccine and I didn’t want it. I consider myself quite conservative. There are a lot of California policies I’m not in favor of.

A lot of people were moving to Texas at that time and they always said, “It’s for freedom.” I was intrigued by this. I really thought I might be missing something.

After my brother and his family moved to Texas, I flew out to look around. Honestly, I didn’t like it. I should have trusted my gut. But I couldn’t imagine losing my family.

We decided to move in January 2022. My husband was following me. He didn’t want to, but he knows I’m close to my brother.

Once I made the decision, I felt like a ghost. I cried every day before I left. I thought it would go away once I was there.

We were away at the beginning of March. Fortunately, I didn’t sell my house in California.

We moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area

I rented a house from my brother in a town called Highland Village. I knew I would have to find a new job, but it was more difficult than I thought it would be because I have a teaching certificate in California.

They make it pretty clear in Texas that they don’t love California. I spoke with a real estate agent who told us to get our California plates changed immediately.

People would say, “You’re welcome here as long as you vote correctly.” Every single person I’ve met – I’m not kidding – every single one has told me how to vote.

It got annoying after a while because I was like, “Why do you think I’m here?”

I was really down in Texas. I was daydreaming at home constantly. I know it takes time, but I started meeting people who had lived there for 10, 15, 20 years and most of them said it took them. years to adapt to Texas.

This really disturbed me. Life is short. I was approaching 50. I realized I didn’t want to feel like this for years.

During the months I was in Texas, I tried to find things to love there. I took a trip to San Antonio because I had always heard the Riverwalk was really cool. But when I got there, I was surprised because there wasn’t much else there.

Another thing that really struck me – because everyone talks about the homeless problem in California – there were a lot of homeless people in San Antonio. Same thing in Dallas.

Texas was not as cheap as I thought it would be

In my experience, I found that Texas was not much less expensive than California. Everyone knows about property taxes, which are horrendous.

But people also talk about Texas having no income tax. I figured that without income taxes, the prices of services like going to a beauty salon would be the same as in California, if not less. But it was actually more expensive!

Groceries were about the same. Gas is much cheaper, but almost every road in Texas is a toll road, so you still pay to drive.

I’ll also have to take a pretty big pay cut. There was going to be a cut in salary from $20,000 to $30,000 as a teacher in Texas.

Meanwhile, my daughter got a job as a server at Red Robin. Her base pay was $2.35 an hour plus tips. And Texans are not good grandparents.

I only stayed four and a half months

I originally committed to being there for at least two years. I rented out my ranch in California for two years.

But while I was in Texas, I would frequently return to California to visit my oldest son. During one of those visits, my old manager told me they had a vacancy.

A month after I left for Texas, the school lifted the vaccination requirement. So it was no longer a problem for me.

I told my husband that I would let him make the decision. I knew he didn’t like Texas either, but we had just moved at my request. He thought about it until the last day and finally said, “You know what? Let’s go back.”

It was hard to leave my family in Texas, but my family in California was really happy.

We returned home in mid-July.

I signed a two-year lease on my farm, so we couldn’t move back into our house right away. I rented a house in Murietta, next to Temecula. I was so happy and glad to be home.

Then, three weeks after I rented the Murietta house, my tenants at the farm called me and said they had to move and wanted out of the contract. I got my house back.

I’m glad I moved even though people thought I was crazy

I learned a valuable lesson. It was an expensive and uncomfortable lesson, but I learned that freedom means different things to different people.

For one person, freedom might be not having to vaccinate your children. Another person might think that freedom has to do with gun rights. I’ve learned that for me, freedom means having peace and adventure in my everyday life—having trails outside my front door and being able to go and escape from the heart.

In Texas, I kept asking everybody, “What do you mean by freedom?” I never got a satisfactory answer as to what that extra freedom was.

I see California in such a new light since moving back. I am so grateful for things I didn’t even notice before. Everyone is active here. They go out to have fun, smile, laugh. People have adventures.

I miss Texas barbecue. I enjoyed the rodeo. You could always see live music. And while I don’t appreciate the obsession with politics, I did appreciate Texas patriotism.

But I also realized that politics in California doesn’t affect my daily life the way I felt it did in Texas. We don’t obsess over politics here, but when I was in Texas, that was the main conversation. It was exhausting.

I actually came back a little more purple than I started. I realized that every state, red or blue, has its disadvantages. No place is perfect.

I really appreciate California protecting its land, I want to have public spaces that are beautiful. Plus, I love California’s great income for teachers and the great health benefits it gives us. I didn’t know how superior it was until I left.

I want to live the rest of my life here in California. It’s definitely my happy place.