WHERE HAVE I BEEN? TEXAS: A YEAR LATER...SOME REFLECTIONS...

 
                                                  

Dallas, Texas; a year later...

Who would have ever thought that I've be living in texas. Texas was never on my bingo card, honestly that place never even crossed my mind.

A year after moving back to NYC from mexico City, I wrestled with the idea "was it really New York Or Nowhere?' and during that little prayer of where was I going to live. I heard God's voice in my head "Dallas" like a laptop I closed that tab so fast and tried my best to never think of that moment for over a year.

But, just a couple of months after that supernatural moment, My whole life, plans started falling apart...

Let's rewind for second, I never thought I could live anywhere but NYC or Europe but Covid kinda changed my plans. A year in of the pandemic, I thought to myself if I don't make it happen now to try living in London which has been my long life dream, I thought it was never going to happen. During the process, I realized how hard it was to move to England, then I thought Paris is a lot easier; I do speak french, have friends that live there, easy transition right! Not so fast

The French embassy office messed up my application twice which was not a coincidence. I know now it was God. My best friend at the time said " why not Mexico" and as someone who had only been to Tulum 3 times then, I hated the weather there, too hot I thought to myself, no way because I associated Mexico with only hot weather.  I also hated summer, sweating and everything in between.

However, since I wanted to get out of the country fast with minimal effort, Mexico landed itself perfectly. I did not do a lot of research prior to moving there because for me too much researching can be a handicap & influence my decisions. I rather dive in , head first first, then figure it out as I go. 

I know what you're thinking, this post is about My year in Texas, not Mexico but I think living there influenced my decision to even think about ever leaving New York City in the first place. 

So, I googled what's the safest city in mexico for expats? Merida came up and after watching a couple of videos, I was in but not completely sold on the weather. I sold everything I owned in NY, got a one way ticket to Merida and 3 suitcases. I touched down in Merida, it's stunning, the food is by far my fav regional food from Mexico. But it was too tropical for me, I get bored easily and I was additect to city life.  I met an american who was living in Merida for a few months & was moving to Mexico city in just a week. She sparked my interest to consider moving also, and I did a week later.

My jaw dropped when I landed in Mexico City! The weather is beautiful all year long. So much art, events, restaurants...It was not what I expected, to be honest I am not  even sure I know what I was expecting. I fell in love and felt right at home. It's the perfect mix of Mexico, NYC, and Europe...And the food, the best! Still have not recovered since moving back. I may go as far as saying mexico City has the best food in the world. Never been so well fed in my entire life. After a few months living there, unfortunately I had to move back due to work, events. It became increasingly hard to do my job there due to packages, I found myself flying back to the states every month. 

I still think until this day if I had a work from home office job I'd still be living in CDMX. 

Anyways, I moved back to NYC. And just a few months later, I was wrestling with the idea "Is it really New York for Nowhere?" I knew I couldn’t live there anymore after experiencing life in Mexico City but I couldn't picture myself living in another city in America. It was due to my lack of trying. Looking back, there are so many cities in the US I could easily live in and moving to Mexico made me realize I could not go back to the hustle lifestyle I was so used to, shoe box apartment of NYC etc...Now I had standards of how I wanted to live in NYC and that would cost a brownstone, a chauffeur, a summer house upstate and multiple millions that I don't have on this earth rn.

I knew the jig was up and I could not bring myself to accept defeat. I felt like such a disappointment that I was not able to make it in NYC. But looking back I am who I am because of NYC. To society standards you could say I did not make it in the concrete jungle, but speaking of growth or essence I made it. I couldn’t be who I am today without NYC. Sure I didn’t make it in NYC but IT made me.

I knew it was time to say goodbye to NYC but I lacked the courage to accept it. I turned to God and during prayer asking him "where am I going to live now" I heard Dallas. I shut that idead down so quick and didn’t ask again for another year. I started reading the bible, and saw a pattern of god calling his people to move to certain places with no plans and they trusted Him and did so. As someone who’s lived in two other countries, I thought It can't be so bad to live in Dallas. I figured I'd go see what God's talking about, I guess I could always move back if I didn’t like it. I also thought if The God who created everything, gave his only begotten son Jesus Christ to die for my sins so I can have eternal life, told me to do something who am I to stand in his way for the plans he has for me. He knows everything, He must have something here for me...

Yes I grew up Christian all my life but never had a personal relationship with Jesus the way I do now. I had no idea I had access to him directly and He could speak to me. So after a year of being disobedient, I booked a one way flight to Dallas, Texas and just made it a year.

Do I like it? I am still grappling at that idea. There are so many pros to living here. It's been so healing for me. Dallas is pretty cool actually. There are so many things I love about living here. The food, the suburbs, the shopping, grocery stores, apartments, slow living, road trips...

I hated the weather at first now I'm starting to love it, feels like I'm on vacation all the time and my need for traveling often is gone. Driving 3 hours to another big city in Texas is like going to another state.

I would say the GTA style driving and lack of mountains are my two cons.

I've already gotten to the point where I am not sure I want to live anywhere else. Maybe California someday. 

I not sure they could pay me to live in NYC again...

                                                        

Thanks for stopping by

Xoxo, Rose 🌹 

I am always active on Youtube and Instagram if you want to chat there