At some point last year, someone repeated this well-known phrase to me: “You have to leave your home before you can really understand and appreciate it.” After spending last academic year outside of my hometown of Austin,Texas (I spent the fall semester at A&M in College Station, Texas and then the spring semester in Italy), I was able to experience what that phrase actually meant. And it means…
… I love, love, love Austin! I thought I appreciated it before – I relished visits to an art gallery on fifth street to see work by Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, and Andy Warhol, I enjoyed floating around in the offbeat personality of the street Austinites call “The Drag,” and of course, driving towards the Austin skyline always meant that some journey had come to an end and I was safely home.
But I’ve never loved Austin as much as I do now. Austin is a wild paradox where all kinds of people, tastes, ideas, and convictions mesh, mold, and clash. Austin is high-tech, artsy, casual, funky, messy and beautiful.
Here are three reasons I love Austin:
- Tex-Mex (I’ve visited the East Coast, the Western U.S., seven countries, and virtually all of Texas– and I firmly believe that Austin has the best!)
- Where else can you find a “vagrant” that runs for mayor and embodies the soul of a city?
Add your own ideas about Austin!
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