We spent New Year’s Eve wearing paper crowns at a cozy New England restaurant that felt like a living room. The owner stopped by our corner booth while he worked the room. Our friends, who run their own bakery, slipped away to say hi to some regulars they’d known for years.
The year before had been different. Wall-to-wall bodies at a roller-rink club in Brooklyn. We had a good time, sure, but sitting in that small-town restaurant watching fireworks over the river felt like exactly where we were meant to be. There was no line, no cover fee, no wild countdown. The night that often disappoints simply didn’t.
This wasn’t where I thought we’d be on the last night of 2025.
The Sweden Detour
In June, we moved from New York to Sweden, following a simple idea: when things feel scary in America, the best course of action is to leave. We fell into a mellow rhythm pretty quickly. Beaches. Well-maintained conservation areas that went directly through cow pastures. Affordable, healthy food from the grocery store. Sweden delivered in real ways.
But staying required logistical planning and more time than we had. Leaving didn’t feel like failure, though. It felt like choosing something more permanent.
Finding Home in Maine
Back in the US, we weren’t looking for another major metropolitan area. We wanted a real community. That search led us to a small Maine city just south of Portland, where some of our friends were already living. Population under 23,000. A few of them helped us secure an apartment before we even arrived.
In New York, we had a rich community, but our friends were spread all over the city. As soon as we got to Maine, we realized we could walk almost anywhere: from our apartment to a friend’s place, the pharmacy, a grocery store, the river. That changed everything.
The bakery our friends run isn’t just a place to grab delicious treats and coffee anymore. It’s where we run into people we know, make new friends in line, chat about how everyone’s winter is going. It’s where the neighborhood happens.
What Community Actually Means
We’ve seen the way Mainers support each other in real time. When our moms visited and we slid our brand-new Volvo straight into a ditch on a coastal drive, we were inches from damage and bracing for a tow when a woman and her kids came outside and jumped in to help push us back onto the road.
Within minutes, we were free. They waved while we drove off as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The business community shows up for people in larger-scale ways too. When a major fire hit the Old Port this winter, destroying boats and fishing equipment, the owner of a local seafood restaurant started selling t-shirts with proceeds going to the fishermen affected. When ICE enhanced its presence in Maine, businesses put up “No ICE” posters, a hotline was established to provide help, and crowds gathered downtown to protest.
It reaffirmed what I already knew: when people here think their neighbors are at risk, they take action.
Building Something Real
One night, before grabbing cocktails, a group of our friends went to a live storytelling event in a small church. I was surrounded by new and familiar faces. A former theater kid in his 30s told a story about the state spelling bee. An 80-year-old talked about soapbox racing in Camden.
My own creative work is taking shape here too. I’m querying a novel and found a steadier practice and supportive writing scene than I had in New York. There’s something about a smaller place that makes you feel like your work matters, like someone will actually read it.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to live abroad. The experience clarified something important: I didn’t need to leave America to find what I was looking for. I just needed to find the right place within it.
Sitting in that booth on New Year’s Eve, wearing a paper crown and watching fireworks with people I’d known for just a few months, I understood why people here claim this place. Why they stay. Why they expect to see each other for decades and actually mean it.
Sometimes the best decision is the one that lets you stay put.
