#9 - Moving to Dallas

By the time Mark and I struck up our friendship I had already come to the decision to move from Wichita Falls to Dallas. I had to finish out my semester at Midwestern; however, I felt that I needed to begin the transition to my new life. For a few months at the end of 1995 I went to school and worked at the college during the day and then drove to Dallas a few nights a week and on the weekends to work at a restaurant in Addison. I found an apartment and began staying there when I was in town.

Through all of that Mark and I continued to talk and to spend time together. He began coming with me to Dallas on the weekends and we found that, strangely enough, the apartment I had rented was literally about one mile from his mother's home - the home that he had grown up in. I remember that last weekend before the final move being kind of quiet and awkward. We knew that our time together was coming to an end and I don't think either of us really knew how to feel about it because at that point we really were more friends than anything. As those last few days began to tick by, Mark decided that he wanted to move to Dallas with me. I can't say that it was solely because of me although I know that was part of it. Mark just knew that his time in Wichita Falls was over and that it was time to move on with his life. We ended up sharing a U-Haul and though the initial plan was for him to stay with his mom, we basically lived together from that point on.

Those first months in Dallas are a special time for me. Having grown up in Childress, Dallas was always such an amazing place to me. For years I was in awe anytime we drove by the downtown skyline at night. I was so happy to be in a place with so much energy and potential. More than anything though, that is the time when Mark and I truly got to know one another. We met in October and moved to Dallas in December so our relationship was still very new. I remember sitting up together, night after night, talking for hours at my kitchen table in that first apartment - something we still do. That is the time when I learned Mark's history and he learned mine and the time that we gradually came to understand that we were made for each other. I think being in a new place together and forging a new life brought us closer than anything else could have. That tumultuous time period laid the foundation for the life (and the friendship) we have now. We were forced to work together as a team then which helps us continue to be a team today.