Personally

My initial reason for choosing this specific area of the country was the water and the culture. I guess I kind of knew from the get-go that I was going to stay. I moved for a job at a rural health community health clinic to pay off school loans for my nurse practitioner education completed in 1997. Along the way I met Jim Stewart, the man I married in November of 1999. He is a fishing guide in the Lower Laguna Madre, which is a shallow bay, separating the barrier island of South Padre from the mainland. He has also taken up the art of gunsmithing in the past three years. He has lived in the area for about 18 years, having moved here from Houston where he was an electrician. My mother, who has Alzheimer's, moved here in 2000 from California, initially living in an assisted living facility, and now living with us for the past 2 years. The remainder of our family includes a black lab named Lefty, Annie, a black pug mom and her two boys, Homer and Mick. The felines are sisters, Ming and Camo; and last, but not least, the feathered kind are two parrots, an African Gray called Tatu and Mexican Red-Head called Nacho. We also have a local family of screech owls, have resident armadillos, and, of course, alligators, as we live on a fresh body of water called a resaca (originate from the Rio Grande River Delta which no longer exists except for the resacas).
My professional life has been varied while here. My most recent job is working at a clinic on South Padre Island. It is a thrill going over the causeway every day to work. The main clinic is in Brownsville and I am supervised by the doctor there. We have close to full autonomy, as he has yet to visit, even though he owns a condo on the Island...and that has been 6 years!! I work in Brownsville one day a week at the main clinic, and the previous NP works at the Island that day. He is my neighbor, living 4 houses down. Every day is unique, you never know who will walk through the door and makes it very interesting. There are the locals, the Winter Texans, the summer tourists, the Mexican Nationals, the Spring Breakers. It is as close to an ideal job as one can get!!!