What it’s like living in Salem, MA (as someone who didn’t grow up here)

Hi everyone! Happy Monday and welcome back to the blog. Today I wanted to touch on sort of a fun and lighthearted topic – what it’s like living in Salem, MA (as someone who didn’t grow up here). My perspective is a little different than those who have grown up in Massachusetts or in the north east. For those of you who don’t know, I am originally from the west coast. I grew up outside of Seattle, WA and Massachusetts is fourth state I have lived in. To sum it up, the first half of my life was spent on the west coast and the second half has been here on the east coast. To be clear – I knew ALL of these things before moving here, of course. It’s not like I moved here without ever visiting. I was a long time visitor before moving into the area and then into Salem. Here are some random and silly observations I have made as a MA transplant.

I have never lived anywhere that is so walkable

Salem is an extremely walkable city. I work for myself from home and live right on the edge of downtown so a tank of gas will literally last me like a month. Salem is easy to navigate on foot, has a train station right downtown, has its own car service program (Salem Skipper) and a bike share program. Seeing how long the gas in my car lasts me is a testament to how little you need to drive.

This is the land of CVS

It’s widely understood that there are about a million Dunkin Donuts locations per town. However, I think CVS has them beat. I have never lived anywhere in my life where I have access to so many CVS locations at any point.

You need to get your car inspected each year

I didn’t know this was a thing until I moved here and transferred my license and car registration to MA. It’s basically a road safety check, which is great. Making sure the cars on the road aren’t dangerous to the driver or others around them is great. However, I have never experienced this anywhere else and again, I have lived in four different states through my life.

Salem is windy af

I knew this before moving here, of course. However living here and seeing it regularly is what makes it stand out to me. The wind is insane here, I can literally feel it pushing my apartment sometimes. It whips around the area I live and can be insanely strong at times.

I don’t get the whole roast beef sandwich thing

I may catch some heat for this one but I really don’t get the whole roast beef sandwich thing. There are a trillion spots all along the north shore that offer their take on a classic roast beef sandwich and folks around here will argue over which is best. When I finally tried it myself for the first time, I have to say I was sort of underwhelmed. Maybe I need to explore other roast beef spots because I seriously don’t get it.

You are going to need to learn how to parallel park

I have never lived anywhere with so much on street parking, so I had to get used to this one really quickly when I moved here full time. If you don’t know how to parallel park your car – you’re going to have to figure it out. 😛

There ya have it! Today’s post was sort of a silly one but was fun to write and reflect on the differences between living here in Salem and other places.