If It Makes You Happy

Michelle Cadell’s move to Copper Run, Vermont, complicates her perception of her meaning, purpose, and future. For years, Michelle has devoted her energy to building a life and vocation for herself in the city. She has cultivated success in the advertising world, even at the expense of her marriage to Allen. In Vermont, Michelle is temporarily putting her life on hold to help her sister; she has no intention of giving up on her metropolitan, high-powered businesswoman dreams to settle down in rural New England. However, the quaint town and community work their way into her heart and challenge Michelle to redefine what ambition and happiness mean to her.

Life in Copper Run teaches Michelle about the power of home and belonging. When she first arrives, she feels an unpleasant “tightening in [her] chest” and has “to remind [her]self” (35) that she wants to be in Copper Run to help her sister. The picturesque town is nice enough for a postcard but it feels stifling and doesn’t align with Michelle’s “super-adult advertising job” and “super-adult life” (35) back on the West Coast. Over time however, Michelle discovers that Copper Run empowers her in new and unexpected ways.