This goes beyond the barn, the story of Freedom Farm, the acres of protected Conservation Trust land that surround my rural corner of our bustling vacation destination. I am not just obsessed with my home, I am obsessed with Kennebunkport in general.
At times this expands to the broader Kennebunks. Over to downtown route 1 where I work my day job, or out to my brother's abode including both pigs and chickens in West K. I also can't help but love that long stretch of Arundel with it's flea markets, cheap breakfast diners, and of course Bentley's. But generally it is our humble population of around 3,500 year-round residents that I can't get enough of.
This is a good thing, since living in a small town means you get a lot of it. What is "it"? Oh, I guess the word 'gossip' could sum it up. But it's more than that. Because it's not just people talking about each other - it is people being genuinely involved in, and concerned about, each other's lives. Last winter a buddy of mine moved in. Dan is also a Kennebunkport resident and it took less than a week to have multiple people downtown ask me "when did Dan move in?" all based on seeing his truck in my driveway. Some were excited, some wondered if we were dating... others had no feeling one way or another - they just wanted to be in the loop on what was up.
The upside of such a level of involvement is that people remember you, and look out for you. Which is exactly how I earned my new title of Kennebunkport town columnist for the York County Coast Star. Back when I first moved to Kennebunkport I started working freelance for the paper - and I loved it. I stopped when I got a full time gig at the Kennebunk Post, and then stopped that job when I got a corporate job that actually paid above living wage (not common in entry-level journalism!). I have greatly missed having writing as a part of my professional life ever since.
(OK, OK, technically writing is still a part of my professional life. But corporate social media copy just isn't the same as feature stories on all the cool people who live in your neighborhood, ya know?)
Anyway. The Coast Star was in need of a new columnist, and my former editor thought of me. So now I get to balance my money-making corporate gig with what is truly my dream job: writing about this amazing place in which I live. Goooo, small town life!
You can check out my first column here.
I'm also hoping that writing regularly for the newspaper will inspire me to write more regularly in general. I mean, columns were the original blog, right? Why can't I keep up with both?
