I just submitted a rental application for an apartment, so this seems as good a time as any to announce that I’m moving back to Texas.

My life in Iowa has been wonderful in many ways, but after three Midwestern years I’m ready to resume real city living. I spent the last semester traveling all over the country looking for where I might want to relocate. I fell in love with Seattle, spent several glorious days in Portland, and had my eyes opened to the excitement of burgeoning Durham. And had you asked me a few years ago, I would have placed the odds of my ever living in Texas again at near-zero. But, three years later, I’ve realized that proximity to family is a much bigger motivator than I’d realized. Than I’d ever been in a position before to discover. So I’m splitting the difference between novelty and familiarity by moving to Austin, a city in which I’ve never lived, but where I have friends and will be an easy drive from my parents in San Antonio. All the other places I want to be will wait for me. I have unfinished business in the Lone Star State.