The perfect way to describe life. Many things are bittersweet. Endings, beginnings, happiness, sadness, success, failure. All are good and bad at the same time. Leaving, for me, was bittersweet. I had so much there, I had a family, I had friends, I had a life. But sometimes, you need to move forward, away from what you have, to gain what you could have. I couldn't stand to be stuck there anymore, and so I packed up my little apartment, loaded all I owned into my truck and drove somewhere new. I don't remember how many hours I drove. I just kept going, no particular direction except away. I remember my phone ringing, everyone wanting to know where I was, why I had disappeared. I eventually turned my phone off. I didn't cry the first night. Actually, I don't think I cried the first whole week I was gone. Why would I? I had wanted this, needed this, hadn't I? I felt so stupid, crying into some trashy motel pillow. I took odd jobs here and there, just trying to figure out what I wanted. Eventually, I saved enough and opened myself a shop. It didn't do so well at first. I was just a small pastry shop among places like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. Maybe it was the humble, personal feel. Maybe it was the less formal setting, more friendly. But soon, I had regulars, had employees, had business. I missed home, wished I could share this with everyone I had left behind. But I knew, had I stayed in that town, I would never have had the guts to open my little shop. The shop was the happiest part of my life. I met the love of my life there. I met the people who would become my own little pseudo family there. I raised my kids there. I fed people's kids. I watched people fall in love, watched couples break up, watched first kisses, first dates, and first heartbreaks. I saw lives lived in my shop and I lived my life there. While I missed my old family, I had become a part of something bigger. I had become a person my kids could look up to in that shop. Everything came together from me falling apart. And it all came down to a little shop on Main St. called Bittersweet Bakery & Coffee.