We are two people from different corners of the U.S. I was born in Bellingham, Washington, which is dang-near the furthest northwest point in the country. He is a preacher’s son, born and raised in southeast Texas. (When we met, his daily attire wasn’t complete without a belt buckle and boots and Stetson cologne.)
Eventually, my parents migrated a bit further south, closer to the Seattle suburbs. Soon after, however, they divorced. Remarriage forced my brother and me to relocate to Texas. Around this same time, his parents were also going through a divorce while living temporarily in British Columbia, Canada. His mom came back to Houston with her three kids.
I was raised my whole life basically in the south, but I never felt that I fit in anywhere but the Evergreen State. The older I got, the more focused I became on returning home. Immediately after high school graduation, I began working full time in order to save up money to make the move. After a few minimum-wage jobs, I came across the perfect opportunity that October and began dating a wonderful guy a few months later.
That wonderful guy – wardrobe notwithstanding – became my husband. And though he is totally country and I am totally rock-and-roll, we have been a team since Day One. Every dream or goal, every life change, every obstacle or accomplishment has seen us rise or fall together.
Here I remain in Houston, nearly 22 years after graduation. I have built a life here and added two team members, both girls, in 2006 and 2009. I’ve owned and operated a photography studio for over 11 of those years. Our moms live here. We got married here. The roots run deep.
But as time went by, the two of us (and then later the whole family) made semi-regular visits to the Pacific Northwest, and he fell in love. We routinely joked at the end of every vacation, “Why don’t we live here?” My kids hated leaving their cousins, and it was always hard for me to say goodbye to my dad, my sister, and my grandparents.
Fast forward to 2012 when I began my CrossFit journey. It took him about a year and a half to follow me, but now, with a more active lifestyle for both of us, our priorities have shifted from evenings and weekends in air conditioning in front of the TV to the benefits of fresh air, outdoor recreation, and life experiences. Each summer seems worse than the last.
During Spring Break of 2017, we made a trip north that changed everything. Normally, our weeklong sojourns are spent getting up early, going to bed late, and cramming in as many game nights and pub visits as possible to see everyone before we leave. But this latest trip was purely for sightseeing purposes. We took CrossFit friends to experience the (cold, rainy) beauty of the mountains and waterfalls and the diverse cities and food. I finally got to be a tourist in my own town and find a box (“gym”) to get in my workouts.
That trip opened our eyes to the incredible opportunities for connecting to people and nature that doesn’t exist for us here in Houston. For some, Texas is the Promised Land, full of wide open spaces, plenty of hunting and fishing, and close to the beaches and lakes. But that is not on our life map. The oppressively humid and hot weather that lasts more than 70% of the year, combined with the distance from new destinations, made it impossible for us to continue to grind every day, merely making a living at the expense of making a life. We want to hike in the mountains, camp in the woods, visit different places in nature, stay close to family, and be able to do it all in a weekend.
So, after a summer of talking and an autumn of planning, here we arrive in the late winter of 2018 and have put our house up for sale, in the hope of moving at the end of this school year. On the other end, we have no jobs and no house. But we have each other, life savviness, and an ambition to live the second half of our lives more richly than ever before.
This is our story of pioneering our own path to the Top Left corner of America… and the ups and downs of starting over again.
The Top Left Corner Life 