My Junior Mints: When Going Home Doesn't Feel Like Home Anymore

Kicking back & relaxing

Around August of each year Tobin and I have had enough of Houston’s brutal summer heat and start to become a bit nostalgic. He thinks about the Oregon Coast and I become homesick for Austin. We try to get away from Houston for a few days and this year we knew we would be heading to the Northwest for Aunt Kari’s wedding in September so we decided to spend a few long weekends in Austin. Tobin has discovered Barton Creek’s golf courses and I get my Austin fix – a perfect compromise. Austin has grown tremendously since I left to attend school in Houston in the mid-90’s, but Austin is pretty much still the same organic town that I left. Yes, there are more roads, traffic continues to get worse, and Austin’s restaurants and shopping are more diverse, but the majority of my old Austin haunts are still there. I miss the lakes, Hippy Hollow, Barton Springs, Sixth Street, Austin City Limits, the UT Tower, the Capitol, and most of all, the Hill Country. These “Keep Austin Weird” and I am a huge proponent.

Houston, on the other hand, is a multicultural metroplex. It’s the fourth-largest city in the nation and spans approximately 600 square miles. The famed honky tonk Gilley’s is no longer in business, but Houston will always be known for its no-zoning ordinances (a developer’s dream), refineries that go on for miles, expansive concrete freeways where 80 mph is the norm, crawfish boils (as kids we caught these critters in the creek but didn’t eat them), king cakes (a cinnamon-roll like cake with sugary icing and traditional Mardi Gras colored sprinkles with a naked baby trinket inside), and least we forget, 100% humidity. These create Houston’s culture, which I had not experienced before moving here. As I heard someone say recently, “It’s a whole different world on the other side of I-45” referring to East Texas and Louisiana. Please don’t get me wrong. Houston is also home to an extremely sophisticated energy industry which I’ve seen stump many over-confident New York bankers, brokers and lawyers. There is that famous line “Yes, I live in Texas. No, I don’t ride a horse to work.” that comes to mind. In fact, only New York City is home to more Fortune 500 companies than Houston. Houston is also home to the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions — NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located — the Port of Houston, one of the busiest ports in the U.S, Rice University, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, four professional sports teams and the Astrodome, the Eight Wonder of the World. Houstonians have a lot to offer.

I will never be a true Houstonian. I wasn’t born “inside the loop” or in one of Houston’s many suburban neighborhoods, but Houstonians have graciously accepted me and many other newcomers to their city. You will never catch me cheering for LSU. My blood runs Burnt Orange and my heart is at Darrell Royal Stadium on game day. When I walk around the 40 Acres, the 40 Acres feel the same and my heart skips a beat, but I feel old. Maybe it’s really me who has changed. I hope, for Austin’s sake, that its traffic continues to creep along at 55 mph and it doesn’t become so congested that it loses its laid back and relaxed quality of life. But Houston is my home now and going home to Austin doesn’t feel the same. At times I am okay with this, but at times I am not.