Is he interested or just being friendly?

I still like this guy i met a year ago. After a few dates we decided to move on because he was studying for his masters and did not have the time for dating or a relationship.He has since graduated and told me he got a job here and will not be leaving as was his plan before he graduated. I was having some health issues so it was not a good time for me either. I recently recieved a surprised text message complimenting me on a newspaper article he saw of me. Since then I have been sending him text messages once or twice a week to keep the lines of communication open. He responds back quickly, will ask another question for me to respond back and seems happy to hear from me. The problem is I am the one initiating the texts messaging and not him so I am not sure if he is interested or just being polite.