How’s it going? I’m Adrian, a 28-year-old Aussie journalist. I won a green card through the Diversity Visa lottery in November 2013 and I’m now living and working in Augusta, Maine, the most north-easterly state of the US.
From a young age I had a fascination with the United States of America thanks to a voracious appetite for reading books that painted a picture of a similar, yet entirely different, country than my own.
After my first vacation to the US in 2008, a seven-week odyssey of eating, drinking, singing karaoke and making new friends, I couldn’t get enough of the country. That trip ignited a fire in me that wouldn’t be extinguished even with five more visits Stateside over the five years that followed.
In 2012, after returning from another two-month extended vacation in the US, I decided to set about realizing my dream – to live and work in America while I was still young enough to enjoy it (and not too old to reboot life in Australia if it went pear-shaped.)
Crawfin' USA 
Andrian,
If you liked the maple whoopie pies than go to the Whoopie Pie Festival held in Dover-Foxcroft in mid-June. It started just a few years ago with a few hundred town folk attending. Now thousands show up. They close part of the main street and you eat your way into a sugar high with all flavors of whoopie pies. Great fun! I enjoy reading your column. I just discovered this website. I am curious about your Australian family. What did you give up to come to Maine on this big adventure? How and why did you choose Maine?
Thanks for the entertainment.
Ann Morin
Winthrop, ME
Hi Ann, thanks for stopping by! Glad you enjoy the column; hopefully I can keep entertaining.
Thanks also for your question (which I’m also going to use in an upcoming blog post about reader questions), it’s a good one. My mum, dad and sister all live back in Brisbane, as do an aunt and a few cousins that I’m particularly close to. I also had to give up a great relationship with a wonderful girl when I moved out here, but I’m lucky that we’re still good friends and she’s helped be my support network a lot since I’ve relocated. And thanks to favorable time differences and a good internet connection, we can keep in touch fairly easily.
As for how did I choose Maine? I didn’t – it chose me. I sent out a lot of job applications between August and November (a LOT) for positions all over the U.S., and the Kennebec Journal was the one of three that ever called back. One, in west Texas, was looking for someone less qualified (and willing to take less money), and the other one, in Colorado, never got in touch again after the initial interview. I interviewed with the KJ the day after Thanksgiving, organized a visit to Augusta the following Monday, then by Thursday I had a job offer. The role seemed like it was written for me, and the team was a really good fit, so I decided to take it. Augusta (and indeed Maine) is very different to where I grew up, and a lot smaller, but I’m enjoying the challenges and opportunities presented by the contrast.