ATX, ILY

As I sit at one of my favorite spots, Radio Coffee South, with an iced vanilla almond milk latte in hand after finishing my delicious Veracruz Migas tacos, I want to take a moment to acknowledge all the things I've loved about this city and all the amazing things that happened here, so I can always look back on this time, even the hard moments.

Austin, Texas, man, I'm going to miss you. I'm so sad to be leaving, but I know I'm in a season of learning to let go. Even though I've been back and forth between ATX and HTX, I've always loved coming home to Austin.

Austin really is just a cool city. There's such a variety of people here, all kinds of backgrounds, passions, and dreams, and there's always something new to try or someone new to meet. Of course, everyone says "Keep Austin Weird," and there are definitely some areas that live up to that, but that's not the Austin I experienced. The Austin I knew was full of creativity, kindness, and people building beautiful things, and it felt like a place where you could grow into who you're becoming.

So this is a love letter to a city I never thought I'd live in. It was never part of the plan, but after a bit of a ‘breakdown’ in the city I'd lived in most of my life, I knew I needed a change, and God called me to the Austin area. I lived in the Bee Cave area and absolutely loved it. God picked the most beautiful apartment, one I couldn't have picked better myself.

The view from my balcony brought a healing to my soul that I didn't even know I needed.

Honestly, I didn't take it in enough; I got too used to it. Now that I'm leaving in less than a week, I'm trying to burn it into my memory.

The beginning wasn't easy

I moved in May 2023. It wasn't the easiest thing, but it was fun, and I was excited even though I was scared. Other than attending Texas A&M in College Station, I had never lived anywhere else, so this was my first big city, and I said, let's do it.

A couple of weeks later, I had my first panic attack. I had never experienced one before, and it turned out to be caused by extremely low ferritin, so if you struggle with anxiety, please get that checked on your lab work. Then, about a month and a half after I moved, one of my best friends since junior high passed away. She lived in Austin too, and I had been looking forward to spending more time with her, and that was taken away suddenly. Grief was woven into so much of that first year, and I know she's part of why this city will always hold a special place in my heart.

I also had some medical workups done because I was convinced something was wrong with me (I think it was years of so many emotions built up, trying to get out), got my first colonoscopy, and got in a wreck outside a church I was attending in Spicewood, which was scary, but thankfully no one was really injured. I cried a lot after the wreck, and honestly, a lot over these past few years, some happy tears, but many more sad ones. There were so many personal things going on, both internally and externally.

The adventures

In between the hard, there was so much good. I took three trips to Fredericksburg that first year alone, and I'm really going to miss being just an hour and a half from Texas wine country. I spent days in Wimberley, Dripping Springs, and Georgetown, the cutest little towns. I saw the Zilker Christmas lights, fell in love with the Texas Farmers' Market at Mueller every single time (despite all the people), and walked around Lady Bird Lake more times than I can count. I saw it ice and sleet two years in a row, went to ACL (would not recommend), and saw Ella Langley at Maverick's in Buda before she went big.

When my brother spent a weekend with me, I took him to the Capitol and to a Round Rock Express game. Being closer to my extended family meant I could visit them in Kerrville, which was such a gift after living so far away for most of my life. And I turned 30 and actually celebrated in downtown Austin with so many friends and family I love.

Faith and community

Austin taught me how intentional you have to be to make friends. I reached out to an online content creator, Katey, to ask if she would mentor me. We started meeting for coffee about once a month, and it turned into a friendship I am SO grateful for. The girl group she intentionally created has been one of my favorite parts of Austin and one of the things I'll miss dearly.

I went to my first big Christian women's conference, by myself, at a church in San Antonio to hear Lisa Harper speak, and a few months later to another church gathering with Katherine Wolf, which was so inspiring. I joined women's Bible studies at a variety of churches. I also worked with a stylist, Celina, who became one of my favorite people I met here and a such cherished friend — and I actually met her through one of the Bible studies

Growing the business

This is also the city where Mustard Seed Health & Healing began and where I started to really lean into it. I attended a one-night session on body image and the gospel at Austin Stone, and I think that's where the seed for my business really took root and I got clearer on what I wanted to do. It feels fitting, since Mustard Seed is named after the smallest of seeds that grows into something so much bigger. I didn't know it then, but God was planting something in Austin that I'd get to watch grow.

I went to networking events that pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me get more comfortable talking about what I do, I also met another amazing friend there, Ally who has been one of my favorite friends who ended up living right up the road from me! I posted videos on TikTok, worked part-time as a professional organizer, got more consistent with working out, and spent days at Nuvitru Wellness and Be Well Chiropractic to help my body, mind and soul. I did my first brand shoot, and it was absolutely perfect; everything fell into place a year and a half after first meeting with the photographer without a clear vision. I started creating Rooted Together, my mother-daughter course, filming videos, making handouts, and dreaming up the vision. And I wrote and launched my first book, then celebrated it with my amazing community of women here in Austin.

There is so much more that has happened over these past few years, but I’d be writing for a very long time…

Thank you, Austin, Texas

I am forever grateful for this story God wrote, for how intentionally He placed me here, surrounded me with people and new experiences, and gave me a new vibrancy for life, even when it meant going against the grain.

To the friends and amazing women I met who are building and creating: I am forever grateful for your support, your encouragement, and your constant love. Watching so many of you build careers and families at the same time has been such an inspiration to me. I have never experienced friendship and community this intentional, where people have your back, genuinely celebrate you, and sometimes tell you the hard stuff when you need to hear it. We're all learning and growing, but I've found such an art in being present and celebrating that.

Austin was a fresh start, and leaving it is teaching me how to let go, which, if I'm being honest, I'm still not great at. But I'm holding onto the fact that what God did here doesn't stay behind when I leave. The friendships, the growth, and the healing are all coming with me, and I'm so grateful for that.

There's so much more I could say, but for now, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite ATX spots you'll have to try if you’re ever in the city, the places I kept going back to:

Coffee: Radio Coffee, Merit, Peaches, Noble Joe Coffee, Sunlife Organics, Maaribu

Restaurants: The Well, Runaway Luna (get the honeycomb latte!), Local Foods, Swedish Hill, Wayback Austin, Austin Tea Exchange, MorninGlory, Veracruz Tacos, Suerte

Churches: Zao Church, Church of Whitestone, Red Rocks, Austin Ridge Bible Church

I love you, ATX.

There's something about a city set among the trees, with all that green, that made it such a healing place for my soul. This isn't goodbye, just see you later, and I hope to one day call the Hill Country home again.