One Reason I Love Living in Texas

Of course, there are also things I don’t love…

Photo by Vivian Arcidiacono on Unsplash

I grew up in New York City, went to college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and went to graduate school in Colorado. I am definitely not a native Texan.

However, I moved here 20 years ago, and I now love living here.

There are things I hate, of course.

• the summers suck. 100+ degree heat for a 100 days? No wonder Davy Crockett apparently said “You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.” Texas might marginally be better, temperature-wise, than hell.
• There are all sorts of critters — though this is true as well in many Western states that still have undeveloped land. Here in Texas, we have rattlesnakes, scorpions, coyotes, brown recluse spiders, and fire ants. I’ve encountered each of these in some fashion since I moved here.
• There are tornadoes and hurricanes.

But there are also things I love. The friendly people, for example. The good neighbors. The Mexican food, barbecue, and margaritas. The temperate winters and glorious spring.

Lady Bird Johnson made sure that native wildflowers were planted alongside the roads and highways in the state. They are also abundant in meadows and fields. This means that in the spring, we enjoy swaths…