My names Haley and I’m a 24 Texan born and raised.. that is up until like second grade. Still a proud Texas tried and true either way. I’ve been blessed to have with so many amazing opportunities to live so many different places and travel to places I’d only ever dreamed of visiting or even crazier that I didn’t even know existed. I’ve lived in Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas again, Tennessee, and now back to the good ole Lone Star State.

If you would have asked me a year ago where I would like to end up living and making my permanent home I would have been utterly undecide. To be honest with you I never really saw myself living somewhere longer than maybe 2 years. There’s so much more of the world I want to visit, so much I want to see and experience and I always thought I’d just keep moving and never really stick somewhere, ya know?

That is until a couple months ago. I had been having this weird feeling lingering in my heart: a longing for something, somewhere, someone. I wasn’t quite sure until the mention of moving to Texas came up in conversation one day. It’s a joke in my house, the idea of moving, due to the fact that at this point we are all pretty exhausted from the years of learning new roads, acquiring good bearings of a city , finding a bomb ass Mexican restaurant, becoming friends with the baristas at your local coffee shop, just to have your roots torn from the ground and sent on their way to be replanted elsewhere and to restart the learning process all over again.

Now, don’t get me wrong, like I said before it is a blessing to have gotten to move and travel for so many years and I’m so thankful, but like I was saying something in me recently had been awoken from sleep and now loomed the very hallways of my heart, homesick.

Without my realizing I slowly became homesick for Texas. Nothing sparked my homesickness, nothing in particular anyway. I could just feel a pull at my heart and I didn’t know what it was until moving to Texas was mentioned and my heart caught a blaze. That’s it. That’s this feeling looming in my heart. The homesick feeling of melancholy collided with the hope of soon moving back to my home state and my mind began to race.

I’ve always been in love with the start of new beginnings: moving somewhere new where no one knows your name, the thought of so many new adventures to be had in this new land like opening a new journal with empty pages patiently waiting to be filled with stories. It sparks my imagination, reignites my motivation.

As daunting as it may be to move to a new city and leave everything youve lnown to be “home”, the longing for newness and a fresh start reigned as the supreme feeling. Once my parents said moving is a definite choice if everyone was on board, it was the biggest of yeses from me. One month later and the countdown began.

Soon enough the hurricane of boxes engulfed my house and 3 days later we were on our way. Thirteen hours, a prayer rock, 3 bathroom breaks, a stop at my Nonnie’s house, and a gas station pickle later and we finally arrived.

I’m so excited to be back in my home state of Texas. I’m excited for all the amazing adventures and opportunities God has in store for me and my family. Seeing the shape of Texas on everything makes my heart so happy and lights up the Texas shaped hole that was in my heart.

Here’s to new adventures!

Love, Hales 🤍