- Kellee Speakman moved from California to Texas and back again within the span of five months in 2022.
- Speakman, who identifies as conservative, said she didn't like Texas' obsession with politics.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kellee Speakman, a 50-year-old elementary school teacher who moved from Temecula, California, to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in March 2022. She and her family only stayed in the Lone Star State for four-and-a-half months before moving back to Temecula.
I grew up in Southern California and lived here for 48 years before briefly moving.
Temecula is the best place I've ever lived. I wasn't unhappy here at all. But my brother, who I'm very close to, decided to move to Texas in 2022.
At the same time, I was being told that as a teacher, I was going to have to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and I didn't want it. I consider myself to be pretty conservative. There are a lot of California policies I'm not in favor of.
A lot of people were moving to Texas at that time, and they would always say, "It's for freedom." I was intrigued by that. I really believed I might be missing out on something.
After my brother and his family moved to Texas, I flew out to look around. Honestly, I didn't love it. I should have trusted my gut. But I couldn't imagine losing my family.
We decided to move in January 2022. My husband was going for me. He didn't want to, but he knows I'm close to my brother.
Once I made the decision, I felt like I was a ghost. I cried every day before I left. I figured it would wear off once I was there.
We were gone by the beginning of March. Thankfully, I didn't sell my house in California.
We moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area
I rented a house from my brother in a town called Highland Village. I knew I was going to have to find a new job, but it was more difficult than I thought it would be because I have a California teaching credential.
They make it pretty clear in Texas that they don't love California. We talked to a real-estate agent who told us to change our California plates immediately.
People would say: "You're welcome here as long as you vote the right way." Every single person I met — I'm not joking — every single one told me how to vote.
It got annoying after a while because I was thinking, "Why do you think I'm here?"
I was really depressed in Texas. I was daydreaming about home constantly. I know it takes time, but I started meeting people who had lived there for 10, 15, or 20 years, and most of them said it took them years to adjust to Texas.
That really troubled me. Life is short. I was getting close to 50. I realized I didn't want to feel like that for years.
During the months I was in Texas, I was trying to find things that would make me love it there. We took a road trip to San Antonio because I had always heard that the Riverwalk was really cool. But when I got there, I was surprised because there wasn't much else there.
Another thing that really struck me — because everyone talks about the homeless problem in California — there were a lot of homeless people in San Antonio. Same thing in Dallas.
Texas wasn't as cheap as I thought it would be
I found that Texas was really not much less expensive than California, in my experience. Everyone knows about the property taxes, which are horrific.
But people also talk about Texas having no income tax. I figured with no income taxes, the prices of services, like going to a beauty salon, would be the same as in California, if not less. But it was actually more expensive!
Groceries were about the same amount. Gas is a lot cheaper, but almost every road in Texas is a toll road, so you're still paying to drive.
I was also going to have to take quite a large pay cut. It was going to be a $20,000 to $30,000 pay cut as a teacher in Texas.
Meanwhile, my daughter got a job as a server at Red Robin. Her base salary was $2.35 an hour plus tips. And Texans are not great tippers.
We only stayed for four and a half months
I had initially committed to being there for at least two years. I leased my ranch in California for two years.
But while we were in Texas, I was flying back to California frequently to visit my oldest son. During one of those visits, my old principal told me they had a position open.
The month after I had left for Texas, the school lifted the vaccine requirement. So, it wasn't an issue for me anymore.
I told my husband I was going to let him make the decision. I knew he didn't like Texas either, but we had just moved at my request. He thought about it until the very last day, and he finally said, "You know what? Let's just go back."
It was hard to leave my family in Texas, but my family in California was really happy.
We were back home by mid-July.
I had signed a two-year lease on my ranch, so we couldn't move back to our house immediately. We rented a house in Murietta, next door to Temecula. I was just so happy and joyful to be home.
Then three weeks after renting the Murietta house, my ranch renters called and told me they needed to move and wanted out of the lease. I got my house back.
I'm glad I moved, even though people thought I was crazy
I learned a valuable lesson. It was an expensive and inconvenient lesson, but I learned that freedom means different things to different people.
For one person, freedom might be not having to vaccinate your kids. Another person might think freedom has to do with gun rights. I learned that to me, freedom is having peace and adventures in my everyday life — having trails outside my front door and being able to leave and escape the heart.
In Texas, I kept asking everyone, "What do you mean by freedom?" I never got a satisfying answer for what exactly that extra freedom was.
I see California in such a new light since moving back. I am so grateful for the things I didn't even notice before. Everyone is active here. They're out having fun, they're smiling, they're laughing. People are having adventures.
I do miss the Texas barbecue. I loved the rodeo. You could always go see live music. And while I don't appreciate the obsession with politics, I did appreciate Texas' patriotism.
But I also realized that politics in California don't affect my everyday life the way I felt they did in Texas. We're not obsessed with politics here, but when I was in Texas, that was the main conversation. It was exhausting.
I actually came back a little bit more purple than I started. I realized that every state, red or blue, has its cons. No place is perfect.
I really appreciate that California protects its land, I want to have public spaces that are beautiful. Plus, I love California's great income for teachers and the great health benefits we're given. I didn't know how superior it was until I left.
I want to live the rest of my life here in California. It's definitely my happy place.