TexasCHLforum.com

I first got my CHL in '95, first year Texas offered them. My parents own some property about 45 minutes north of Austin and I used to travel up there to either work on the property a little or target practice. Even if I wasn't shooting I carried when on the property because it's pretty wild. Perfectly legal to carry on your own property. However, at the time TX gun laws on the books regarding traveling with a firearm and even having one in the car were a big mess. There was no guarantee that if I got pulled over traveling to my parents' property one day I wasn't going to wind up in jail.
So when TX started to offer the CHL, I jumped on it. The whole process was a lot more complicated at the time. No online process. The first year you got either a 2 year or a 4 year license. I seem to remember going to DPS to get a card to fill out and send in that would then be put into a lottery to figure out if you got a 2 year or 4 year license (the fees were different). They did this to prevent everyone rushing to renew at the same time in 4 years.
I carried mainly when I traveled or when I went up to my parent's land. Every 4 years I had to renew the license, make time to go to the class and spend money. Eventually the properties surrounding my parent's property became a little more populated and I didn't feel comfortable with shooting there anymore. Eventually, after 15 years of having a CHL, I let it lapse when work and life made taking time out for sitting through a renewal class and paying the fees difficult.
Fast forward a few years and I start to wake up and really realize that our world is changing and not for the better. The list of things spiraling out of control grows daily. Terrorism, ISIS and "lone wolf" incidents on the rise, government regulations trying to limit freedoms to purchase firearms, riots and general global unrest, the potential for economic collapse, and so on... were all factors in getting me to realize that I needed to renew my CHL and start carrying when at all possible and not just for going to the range or when I felt insecure in my environment (bad part of town, traveling, etc...).