First off, there’s balance. When I work, I work like I live in New York City: I wake up at 4:45 a.m., start work at 7:30, and don’t stop until 5 or 6 p.m. I work on the weekends, holidays, and, depending on what my deadlines look like, sometimes a 15-hour day. When I shut down my laptop, I don’t want to walk outside and feel like I’m living in a computer. I’ve felt that way in New York City. In Maine, I walk outside and overlook the ocean. I see land with no people, and I have access to spaces where I can escape from the daily grind, zoom out from where I am, and reboot my brain. I need that.

In a smaller city, I also have access to luxuries. Rent (knock on wood) is affordable. I live four blocks from the ocean in a two-bedroom apartment with a washer and dryer, six-figure salary not required. I also pay for an office space, in the heart of downtown, with wi-fi, heat, and electricity included. Because my rent (again, knock on wood) doesn’t consume 90% of my income, I can work on the podcast full-time, re-invest in Millennial, hire freelancers to help make and grow the show and company, and save money every month for retirement and trips abroad. If that’s not luxury in this day and age, for a 26-year-old living off of a podcast, I don’t know what is.

Another perk is community. Because Portland is a city of 65,000, I’ve easily befriended Jim, who doles out parking tickets downtown. The other night, I went to a restaurant and learned the hostess is my boyfriend’s childhood friend. She brought us a complimentary beet salad and we exchanged phone numbers. At parties, conversations are more about what you love and less about what you do.

As I’m carving out my career 900 miles from my family in Ohio, it’s comforting to walk down the street on a Friday night, and meet new people while bumping into familiar faces. Here, the degrees of separation are two or three.