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ABOUT ME STORIES — INTRO TO ME
About Me - Karen Hoffman
Always a work in progress
Even after living in Dallas, Texas for more than 30 years, the question “Where are you from?” always feels like a punch in the stomach, or like a string plucked on the song of my heart. I may still live in Texas — long after the original theory that “we will only be there a few years; then we’ll get home to California again,” but it’s still really hard for me to say “I’m from Texas.”
Those who’ve known me for part of these 30 years, or those who have known me for my whole life (now twice the time I’ve lived here), share something in common: they know I’m a California Girl at my core. Surrounded by mountains, oceans, inviting sand for my toes to dig into, lakes and flowers for every season, California is never far from my heart. It truly took years before my eyes did not fill with tears as I made my way on the LBJ Highway from our Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to “home” after a visit to family, friends, and the beauty of SoCal. Even so, I won’t ever deny that I’ve been a resident of Dallas for all this time, raising our kids here, finding tremendous joy and wholesome values for most of the years we’ve been here. We have friends who have taken solid, unmovable places as “chosen family” here — and even if I don’t admit to “being from” Dallas, I have many good…
