It all begins … in Bangor Three young professional women choose to launch their futures in the heart of Penobscot County

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Editor’s Note: This is the first in a yearlong series of stories that will follow Jessamine Logan, Pia Lenane and Brooke Barter, three recent college grads who have moved to Bangor, as they settle into their new home. Photographer Bridget Brown and reporter Kristen Andresen will share the women’s stories online and in the pages of the Bangor Daily News in the coming months. For interviews, slide shows and other exclusive content, visit www.bangordailynews.com.

Jessamine “Jessie” Logan stands near the kitchen sink in her Bangor apartment. As she fills a tub with cold water for apple-bobbing, she chats with Jonathan Miller, who drove up from Portland for the night. Outside, a few friends huddle on the porch, smoking cigarettes. Inside, the scent of rum-laced mulled cider, simmering on the stove, fills the air.

In the dining room, Tim McGrath plays his acoustic guitar, serenading a small crowd with his rendition of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.” Pia Lenane and Brooke Barter, Jessie’s housemates and childhood friends, sing along.

Just another Saturday night party in Bangor, right?

Hardly.

Jessie, Brooke and Pia, all 23, are anything but average. They’re young, they’re educated, and though Jessie grew up in Maine, they don’t have ties to Bangor. Until now, that is.

Most of their friends have settled in Boston, Portland or New York, but the trio’s recent housewarming – complete with champagne popping, apple-bobbing and pinning-the-tail-on-the-donkey – celebrated their decision to give the Queen City a go.

A job at Sen. Susan Collins’ office brought Jessie here a year ago. She liked it so much that Pia and Brooke decided to join her. Many of their peers bemoan a lack of things to do in Bangor – even Fusion, the region’s young professionals’ group, has a committee dedicated to increasing the entertainment options in town.

So far, Jessie, Brooke and Pia don’t have any complaints.

This is their story.

Three’s company

Though their parents had known one another since the girls were born, Jessie Logan and Brooke Barter didn’t become friends until a decade ago. Brooke, a Connecticut native, spent summers with her family in Jessie’s hometown of Boothbay Harbor. In time, Brooke’s friend from Bethany, Conn., Pia Lenane, started vacationing in the midcoast town, and after that, the trio were pretty much inseparable.

When they graduated from high school, Jessie set off for Scotland to study at Aberdeen University. Brooke went to New England College in Connecticut, where she recently completed a degree in criminal justice. Pia headed off to Indiana to attend Purdue, but returned to finish her degree at the University of Connecticut.

After graduation, Jessie scored an internship with Sen. Collins in Washington, D.C., which led the senator to offer Jessie a full-time position in Bangor. Her reaction was mixed. On the one hand, she wanted to be back in Maine. On the other, she would’ve preferred Portland.

“All of my friends were making fun of me,” Jessie recalled, laughing. “They said, ‘What are you doing, moving to Bangor?'”

But she did it anyway. A staffer from Rep. Michael Michaud’s office needed a roommate, so she moved in, and before long, the gregarious Jessie started to make friends. She joined the Y. She discovered the European Farmers Market, where the vendors now know her by name. In other words, she became part of the community.

Since Pia and Brooke moved here in late August, they’ve done the same. For them, an average weekend might entail a walk to the Buck Street farmers market with Pia’s Gordon setter, Tino (named for her favorite baseball player, New York Yankee Tino Martinez), leading the way. In the evening, they may go to Carolina’s for a little live music, or they may just stay home and rent a movie. And what a home it is.

“Oh my God, it’s gorgeous,” Brooke said when she first moved in. “I can’t believe how cheap it is. My friends in Boston are paying quadruple the amount I’m paying.”

The three-story apartment – with a parlor, dining room, built-in bar, wood-paneled library and three spacious bedrooms on the former Bangor Theological Seminary campus – for under $1,000 a month, was only part of the allure.

For Pia, the idea of taking veterinary technology classes at University College made her excited for the first time about going back to school. Not long after the semester began, she found work at a local veterinary clinic. Living in Bangor also made visiting her boyfriend, who lives in Winthrop, a little easier.

Brooke saved enough money over the summer so she didn’t have to get a job right off, but after a few months, she started to get a little antsy. She also didn’t have much interest in using her criminal justice degree. Recently, she accepted a job working as a care assistant for people with disabilities, and her first day was Wednesday.

In the interim, however, Brooke became the “mom” of the apartment. In the morning, she would cook oatmeal for breakfast after spinning classes at the Y, and when she met Jessie for their noontime Pilates class, she would pack a salad and yogurt for Jessie’s lunch.

Though they’ve been in Bangor for only three months, it has begun to feel like home.

At the housewarming party, this came as no surprise to Marin Weiner, an online journalist from Boston who whipped up a poem to commemorate her friends’ new digs.

“They’re on cloud nine,” said Marin, who made the trip north earlier in the day. “They love it whether they’re [busy or] doing nothing. Bangor is them to the bone. Driving through town, I’m like, ‘Yup.’ I couldn’t even say anything bad about it, even driving up here, when I realized they’re at mile a billion.”

Jonathan Miller looked around the room, at the people who had driven up from Connecticut, New York, Boston and Winthrop, and raised his cup of cider in a mock toast.

“I think I-95 is the real star here,” he said, laughing.

A one-way street?

In the minds of many young people, traffic on Interstate 95 flows in only one direction: south. But Miller and dozens of other twentysomethings headed north to celebrate their friends’ arrival.

The Two Maines divide isn’t confined to the economy. For years, among young adults who live north of Augusta, there has been a perception that all the young, hip people move to Portland. Then there’s the “brain drain” theory, which states that Maine’s best and brightest leave the state en masse for work and education.

But a 2006 study by the Finance Authority of Maine found that the brain drain numbers just don’t add up. According to an Associated Press report, data show about half of the college graduates surveyed chose to remain in Maine or return to the state to live and work. More than half of the those surveyed who graduated from out-of-state schools returned to Maine.

The University of Maine’s Office of Institutional Studies does its own survey, and the most recent findings show that nearly two-thirds of 2004-2005 graduates who are working full time are doing so in Maine. In a county-by-county breakdown, the highest concentration stayed in Penobscot County, with Cumberland County a distant second.

But none of these figures applies to Jessie, Pia and Brooke. Jessie didn’t just go to school out of state. She left the country. And Brooke and Pia aren’t even from Maine. Still, they’re here. In Bangor. And they say they’re here to stay.

After their party, they acquired a new housemate: Tim McGrath, the musician, had so much fun he decided to move in. Oh, that and the company he works for as an electrician gave him a financial incentive to relocate. So he’s just started to settle in to the study.

After three months in town, the housemates have started to feather their nest. In the dining room, a wooden relief sculpture of Brooke’s uncle’s lobster boat decorates one wall. A painting by a friend – a housewarming gift – adorns another. And the women have grand plans to paint the dinner table Kelly green.

But on the night of their housewarming party, they were painting the town – or their apartment, at least – red.

“Bobbing for apples! Bobbing for apples!” Pia called into the dining room. “You guys, we’re bobbing for apples!”

Jessie and Brooke headed to the kitchen and plunged their heads into the tub. After a few failed attempts, Jessie emerged, soaked to the waist, an apple in her teeth. She dropped it, tossed her head back and joked that she doesn’t swim 100 laps a week for nothing. Then she stood up and yelled, triumphant.

“I love my life!”