Maine: A Place of Healing

Life has always been a place where my arms and legs get severed, my heart has been ripped out of my chest, and I'm in the process of bleeding out...

Then I run away to Maine...and start stitching myself together. I ran away after High School to this place, and it was a hard adjustment. I thought my roommates were whores, I was super awkward (wait a second, I still am...)...and I got home sick. I missed out on Central Michigan University's Basketball games, I missed my sisters, I left Baxter with my aunt and uncle in Massachusetts, and I hated my major (medical biology, which I sucked at).

College was rough, so after I graduated, I moved to North Carolina. But last year when I found myself going through another blender (ha, that's actually kind of true), I sought one place as a refuge. The wonderful state of Maine.

In the process of dying, I chopped my hair off...
I look happy, but I sure wasn't...

For those of you who have never been here, part of the reason why I love it is because it really does get all four seasons.

Pumpkin picking!

When it's Fall, the bite in the air creeps into your bones and makes you put on a hoodie. The leaves turn neon. There are countless places that have pumpkin picking, apple picking, and overall wonderful-ness.

The smell of falling leaves engulfs your nose wherever you are.

While the stars don't quite compare to the southern sky, it is still magical to curl under a blanket with a cup of hot apple cider and watch the sky hoping for a shooting star.

I do not take pictures while driving...

Then the cold gets...colder. Suddenly, you've found yourself in a blizzard.

People who live here warn you about Winter. They tell you to brace yourself, and have warm clothes. Most of us have spare flashlights and candles, especially after that ice storm in 2008 (I think it was that year), and an endless supply of blankets (usually an emergency blanket in our car, too).

Sometimes, the snow piles will cover your vehicle. Sometimes, you'll be knee deep. Many mornings you'll have to go out before you brush your teeth, start your car, scrape off the ice that's accumulated, and then go inside to finish getting ready and pray your vehicle will be warm by the time you get back to it.

But one thing is for sure, if you're in high school or college, you'll be guaranteed at least one day off of school.

Snowball fights are magic. Snow angels are great when you're a snowboarding instructor and teaching several seven year olds.

Don't live in Maine if you don't appreciate Winter, because this season teaches you how to be a kid again, to go sledding, to throw snowballs, and get your car stuck in parking lots after a huge snow storm. Your vehicle will slide all over the road, but it's awesome. You feel like a race car driver...until you see a semi-truck coming...:/

It's warm, but not too warm

As the snow melts, you find yourself in Spring. By this point, chances are you've almost forgotten what warmth and sunburns feel like. Your memory comes back quick, though.

It rains a lot, it's still cold most nights, so while you wear shorts during the daylight hours, you find yourself in sweatpants and hoodies while you sit around campfires in the darkness.

They days smell good, like a mixture of fresh dirt, cut grass, and budding flowers. While Winter froze most of everything the grass turns green as if by magic, you see life again...and suddenly, while you thought Winter was so much fun, you start looking forward to Summer, and the beach, and running after a long hiatus.

You can swim as the sun sets, because some nights...
it's that hot.

I think people forget to tell you that Summer exists in Maine, and that it comes full force. If you don't have fans, or air conditioning, or a house that lives in the shade of a large tree, you're kind of screwed, because it is not immune to heat waves.

In Summer proper attire is shorts, a t-shirt (maybe wife beater or tank top), and usually a baiting suit underneath  because you never know when someone will say, "Hey, let's go to the lake/river/ocean." If you work in air conditioning all day, and walk outside, it's like getting sucker punched....by heat. You've got to get out of it!

But if you wait it out, soon enough an entire year has passed. Fall will comes again, and if you're anything like me, you'll find yourself itching for snow.

A very large portion of my heart and being reside in Maine. When I grew up in Michigan, I found myself wanting to go (t)here (possibly because all the water bottles said, ME Bottle Deposit, 5 cents and I thought I could get rich). So, I moved and found myself here for college for four years. Then moved to North Carolina, and when I died last year, there was only one place I knew could heal me and make me sane again.

Now a year later, I'm recovering...
And my hair has grown back :)

So what about you guys, where do you go for healing? What's your favorite season?