[This guest post comes courtesy of one of the lovely people I met IRL at BookCamp Halifax earlier this year. If you’re interested in sharing your East Coast experience (whether you live here, have lived here, or you’re a tourist), check out the submission guidelines for East Coast Guest Posts.]

By Christine Gordon Manley

I am an East Coaster by birth, and, despite trying to live elsewhere, I am proud to say I remain East Coast by choice. I grew up in Newfoundland, surrounded by sea and rock, and moved to Prince Edward Island shortly after high school, where I became surrounded by field and clay. I left PEI for one year to pursue an MA across the pond in England, and while the Thames did soothe my need to be close to water, it just wasn’t the same, and I was pleased to return to PEI (my now adopted home) after the completion of my course in 2003.

A reality of living in Atlantic Canada is that many of us do find ourselves having to leave for a brief time. In 2006, my husband and I decided to try our luck at “greener employment pastures,” so to speak, and followed the lure of Ontario—a land that promised more opportunity, more money, more adventures, more everything. Our lives in Ontario were good and we did enjoy some of this “more” (and we even lived in close proximity to Lake Ontario, satisfying my water need), but I found myself surprised to crave the “lesses” of PEI: less noise, less consumerism, less stuff. We had our first child in Ontario and have shared some wonderful memories there, but when I, along with many in the doomed economic year of 2009, was laid off, we took it as a sign to return to our less-is-more homeland.

Deciding to return East was easy; actually doing it was not. Job hunting while living in another province is never fun, and there were additional complications of finding employment for both my husband and I, selling our house, finding a place to live (temporary and permanent), transferring medical records, merging two different immunization schedules, and arranging daycare. Our family couldn’t even move here at the same time: my daughter and I moved here four months before my husband was able to join us. I won’t go into the details of how all of these tasks made my head hurt, but it was a good six months of living here before we felt settled as a family, and another three or four months before we felt truly comfortable.

Now, a year and a half later, we are happy. Atlantic Canada is known for its unique sense of community, and there’s no stronger word for what we feel connected to on PEI. We live in a tree-enclosed, isolated neighbourhood where neighbours become friends, even the dogs know each other, and everyone waves when getting the mail. Whenever we venture out, whether to a local farmers’ market, the beach, downtown Victoria Row, or just a local playground, we often see friends and neighbours. We became friendly with our next-door neighbours because our kids (who were refreshingly and blissfully unaware of social protocol) would wander into each others’ homes.

Even the online community here is well connected: both my husband and I are proud to be active members in the PEI Twitter-sphere and have met amazing people this way. We attended a local PEI Tweet-Up and are helping to plan an Island-wide picnic later this summer. I am a member of the Island Tweethearts, a group of twelve young professional women who meet monthly to share business ideas and just enjoy each other’s company. And my magazine, Edwards Magazine, has flourished, not dwindled, at being “rooted” in PEI—I am blessed to have had the best of both worlds, merging an Island publication with national contacts to create a Canadian magazine. These connections can happen easily here, and we feel like finally, after years of wandering, we belong.

And it’s not just PEI. I often think of my birthplace, experiencing waves of longing whenever I catch an episode of Republic of Doyle or see a Newfoundland and Labrador tourism ad that highlights its overpowering landscape, its colour, and its rugged beauty. Living on PEI makes me feel more connected to my other Island home, and I know that visits are not out of the realm of possibility. I love being able to do day or weekend trips to New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. Basically, living within a stone’s throw to all the Atlantic provinces puts a smile on my face.

It’s funny. I lived in PEI a long time before being this at peace. When I moved here in 1997, I was surrounded by the same landscape as I am now. I visited the same beaches. I ate at the same restaurants. But it wasn’t until we made an active decision to move back that I felt truly blessed to live here, instead of just living here out of necessity or waiting until the Next Big Phase that would take us away again.

Driving to a local ice cream shop the other day, my husband and I began talking about the insane beauty of this place.

Him: “It truly is beautiful here.”

Me: “It was always beautiful. We’re just appreciating it now.”

Christine Gordon Manley currently works at the UPEI Centre for Education Research where she serves as communications officer, research coordinator, and all-around Jill of All Trades.When she’s not working with educational researchers, Christine can be found all over the internet. She runs her own freelance editing business, is the founder and editor of Edwards Magazine and the Edwards Book Club, and practices both her writing skills and her running at Share the Run, a blog she started to form a community of runners and co-bloggers. Christine is also a member of the Island Tweethearts.