What I'm saying is, there are other realities outside of Houston.
About 13 years ago, I sold off almost everything I owned including a nice '86 Mustang SVO. And without any job lined up, I flew 2000+ miles from Hawaii to the continent, and wandered about for awhile looking for places with good public spaces, and when I found something, I went job hunting. I won't say it wasn't tough at times: I went from earning $30K/year with generous benefits, to $5.75/hour and no benefits. Once I went for 18 months without steady work (I couldn't get myself to apply at Lockheed Martin). But here I am, still standing. I voluntarily went car-less for 9 years, and when I finally bought one, it was almost on a lark.
With all of the money not spent on cars and other stuff over the years, I went traveling: I figure it's educational to see how people live in other areas. To date, I've been to parts of:
England
Canada
France
Germany
Austria
Netherlands
Italy
Japan (quite a bit of it)
China (incl HK, Beijing, Xian--and Kashgar which is not far from Uzbekistan)
Malaysia
Indonesia
Vietnam
Thailand
Singapore
Cambodia
So trust me when I say that there are realities beyond Houston, Texas, USA.
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