See ya, Texas.

There are a million things I should be doing today (real talk, though, the list is outta this world long), but instead I am sitting down to reminisce.  Because, man, I miss Texas. The gigantic jewelry, the cowboy hats, the abrasive trucks, the oppressive heat, the precious people that have become family. Knowing that it could be a year before I see it all again makes me want to crank up some Miranda Lambert and sing the blues away.

There has never been a point in the last four years that I considered myself to be a Texas girl. I always claimed to be a Midwesterner who was making a pit-stop in the Lone Star State in order to earn a degree. However, as I watched the Fort Worth skyline get smaller and smaller in my rearview mirror Monday afternoon, I felt a genuine pang of homesickness. Like it or not, Texas stole a piece of my heart.

BUT ENOUGH SAP. I could go on. I will not. Instead, I will, with great fondness, remember the people who made the last four years what they were. And I actually will miss them a bundle.

1) The security guys at the Villas. One of them always played Solitaire, one of them always threw up a Horned Frog at whoever drove through the gate. Both had a precious smiles and a kind word, no matter how late it was.

2) Betty. Betty looked to be at least in her eighties and had the sweetest face in the world. She rolled her little cleaning cart around the back of the BLUU like a pro and always seemed so content at her work.

3) That guy who always gave me a free latte at the bookstore. Never failed to put a smile on my face, and he seemed to be working on any given day I happened to really really need some sunshine.


4) Mr. Cheng. I only took his ballet class for two years, but will remember that moment that he came to class in a goblin mask forever.

5) The lady who worked at the Corner Store, and called everyone "Hun", "Baby", "Sweetheart" and "Doll" to the point that you couldn't help but feel like she 1) had known you forever and 2) loved you like her own child.

6) The Provost. Who else can say they had a sassy Scotsman as the Vice President of their university? Everything about that man was adorable.

7) The people at China Jade. Who made the best fried rice ever, always gave us a student discount, and were too perfectly Asian for words.


8) Cute Physics Boy. 4evah.

As one chapter closes and another begins, I'm just throwing this out there: my heart is full. Every sappy country lyric about loving the land and each other and drinking beer and blah blah blah will forever remind me of you, Fort Worth.