Why I Moved Out of Maine

I was born in Bangor, in 1965.

It doesn’t feel fair to be 55 already, but that is a different article.

I moved out of Maine for the first time in 1988, to attend graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia.

I moved back to Maine in 2005.

To say that I was happy to be back in Maine is an understatement. I had looked forward to returning for years.

I moved out of Maine for the second time in 2017, moving to North Carolina, where I still reside.

Having lived in Maine for a total of approximately 35 years so far, and approximately 20 years living outside of Maine as well, I have a few thoughts on both living inside and outside of Maine.

Although I haven’t sold quite as many copies as I would have liked, I have published 18 books. Two of these are about Maine. The first, entitled “This Great State”, covered my love of Maine. It talked about the best of what Maine is and could be.

The second book, entitled “Maine: The Way Life Used To Be”, is also a heartfelt love of the State, including also thoughts on how Maine might do better in regards to keeping more families together in Maine (if that is what individual families want) and in other areas.

I guess that I didn’t follow my own advice by moving out of Maine a second time.

Or maybe I did.

You’ve probably seen that famous drawing of what the path to success is versus what we think it is.

A tangled mess of a line that eventually emerges up and to the right in the former, and the same line without the tangled mess in the latter.

I am a big believer, by experience, in the phenomenon of success (and happiness) being a three steps forward and two steps back type of activity.

It is the unplanned detours — if you agree — that make life beautiful.

Beautiful.

Robert Frost famously wrote in his amazing poem “The Road Not Taken”:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about potentially moving back to Maine (again) someday.

Famously, it is said that “three strikes and you are out.”

It is also said “third time’s the charm”.