when i started this blog and needed to write a little blurb about myself to portray to my readers what i think my voice is, i said, “austin born and raised city girl attempting to live the suburban family life in a not-so-cookie-cutter fashion.” like a lot of my “creative” minded friends, i feel like i constantly find myself trying to define who i am... and needing an outlet to share with others who that person is.
a big part of who i feel like i am is an austinite. i know, i know, there are a lot of jokes about austinites constantly feeling the need to remind everyone how awesome and uniquely cool their city is. but, it’s true. i’m passionate about my city. when someone says something negative about it, i feel defensive as if someone is talking shit about my best friend or mom. like, how DARE you speak such unkind words about someone i love!
when my husband, (also austin born and raised), and i bought our first home 5 years ago, and the current one we had built and moved into a year ago, we weighed our options and decided we wanted a lot of space for our money. like most big cities it’s crazy expensive to live downtown and gets cheaper the further out of the city you go. we decided on a suburban area north of the city and bought a large home in a safe, quiet, kid-friendly neighborhood with great schools. there’s a target and a starbucks only two miles away so i was set, right?
we purchased lots of furniture to fill all of our unnecessary space and rooms that we would ultimately not spend much time in, and i had a really fun time decorating. because i always feel a need to define myself, i felt a real need to make our newest cookie-cutter built home really represent us and our eclectic style... to somehow make our suburban home feel unique and not so “suburbany”. the only problem is, here we are a year later and while i feel like i have accomplished my goal of making this house feel like a home, i have this huge feeling of being unsettled. i’m yearning for the city life... the one where you hear sirens and traffic 24/7, where you can jump in your car and zip right to a locally-owned coffee shop or restaurant and take your kiddos to a cool museum or zilker park to play.
while we live in the suburbs, any time we have a chance for a family day or a date night, we drive into the city. we want our kids to grow up around austin's culture and diversity and to experience all of the unique festivals and experiences it has to offer. moving to the city and changing our lifestyle ultimately ends up being a huge topic of conversation between my husband and i every time we go on dates or spend a day doing something in austin. with all of the articles and studies about it being the number one fastest growing city in the nation, and the real estate market pricing ultimately not slowing down any time soon, i’m suddenly feeling this urgency to do something about this constant battle in my mind. as if we need to either make the jump or somehow turn off the voices in my head and make the decision to be content right where we are. oh, and the fact that we are expecting a baby in just a few short months? just a minor detail. i mean this is totally the perfect time to stress and potentially pack and move, right?
after looking at a few homes in our price range and seeing how little space we would potentially be moving into, my desire to move is now accompanied by a desire to live more simply. to get rid of a lot of the material things i thought long ago that we couldn’t live without, move into a small space and spend our time really LIVING, not decorating or cleaning or any of that other unimportant stuff. to live a more “simplified” and more full life.
for now, i’m not sure what will happen. things could easily go either way and in the meantime i’m just praying that i can somehow calm down the battle in my mind and be content in my heart. because ultimately, where we live is never as important as how we live our life and who we live it with. i know that even if we end up staying in the ‘burbs, i will always consider myself one very blessed “austinite” who just happens to live outside of austin. but just remember never to talk crap about her, or i will go NeNe Leakes on your ass. ;)
*hand painted Austin skyline wooden sign that hangs in our living room is by the talented HartandHomeDesigns on Etsy
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