I was so content sitting outside of a bakery in the Old Port with a cookie and coffee in hand. At this moment, I was able to understand the qualities I appreciate in my hometown.

I have been known, throughout my childhood, to hope, pray, and always state how much I would have rather lived in the city. Throughout my childhood summers, I would sit on my neighbors dock on the water with a magazine, iced coffee, and favorite book, yet still dream to be elsewhere than Maine—particularly, the city.

As a child, I never understood that growing up in a smaller area was very beneficial, and was never able to step back and see how much it has helped me grow. In school, I was always involved in the honors program, extracurricular activities, and heavily involved in sports—building an immense friend group, yet there was still a huge piece of me that wanted something else.

The day I sat at that bakery, extremely content with all of my surroundings and the accomplishments I have had while growing up in Maine, was just weeks shy of me leaving for college. I was two weeks away from packing an entire car with luggage and college necessities when I started to realize I was leaving Maine behind—and would probably never return back permanently.

I began to think of myself by the water. I thought of that one summer where I would spend approximately every day by the dock, tanning, relaxing, and reading countless magazines about New York City. I began to think of how happy I should have been when in reality, I was only thinking of somewhere else I could have been.

I am now in New York. I am now in the area I wished to have been while rummaging through those magazines, or while dreading the fact I had to be away from New York for one more day. And, as I am in New York, I am starting to see some benefits to me growing up in such a small town—when things are so much different now.

I look at my personal qualities—my ability to make friends, as this was always my goal in the small-town school system I grew up in. I now understand how much more rewarding it is to receive something after having to wait so long for it.

Although, what I am able to understand most, is how I need to start living in the moment. Because, in reality, I miss so many of the things I would wish away every day—and an understanding that at times, I was never truly living in the moment.

As my hometown might not have been the right place for me to live permanently, I understand it is where I needed to grow up to become the version of myself I know and love. After being away from home for so long, telling people where I’m from has become enthusiastic, and the dramatic sighs I would add are no longer existent.

All-in-all, my entire life I have always had the drive to be unique, and being able to say that I’m from Maine pieces my puzzle together perfectly.

I would have never thought while growing up that I would come to realize that.