After growing up in Alaska and spending her high school years in Phoenix, Emilias made the leap to small-town life. Soon, she found herself the owner of Millie Coffee, a coffee truck in Fairview, Oklahoma serving locally roasted coffee. What started as a temporary move for this entrepreneur has turned into a lifelong love story with Oklahoma, where she’s found her home, built a thriving business, and embraced a slower pace of life. Here are a few reasons she and her family decided to move to Oklahoma.
Hello, my name is Emilia with Millie Coffee, here in Fairview, Oklahoma. I moved to Oklahoma from Phoenix, Arizona in 2022, and I want to give you a few reasons why I moved.
Back in 2022, I was living with my family in Phoenix, Arizona. It was this really big city and the rat race was just a lot to deal with. We kind of came together as a group and put a list of what we were looking for. Oddly enough, Oklahoma hit every one of those points.
Sense of Community
One of the reasons that I really fell in love with Oklahoma is the sense of community. The moment that my family pulled up to this small town, I could really sense that we were a neighbor, a friend, a community member. This was such a breath of fresh air for me, because coming from Phoenix, there were just so many people around all the time and I barely even knew the person that I lived next to.
I was not the only one who felt impacted by the sense of community. I moved here with my entire family, so that included my three brothers. My two younger brothers were in high school at the time, and they were big into football. Oklahomans love their sports. We saw the community rally around my younger brothers as part of their state championship football team, and the entire community pulls up to these football games, whether they have someone on the team or not.
Abundance of Land
Another reason why I love it here in Oklahoma and I chose to stay is the abundance of land. That was the biggest factor of where my family was going to move, was the land. There’s only farm country surrounding my house and there’s the ability to expand and grow.
My mom had chickens back in Phoenix. She had two or three. That’s about all she could handle. Since moving here [to Oklahoma], we’ve grown her flock probably to 60 chickens. We’ve added a pig, a donkey, three calves, and we’re loving every single part of it.
Small Business Friendly
I would not be able to own my own business anywhere else, and I truly believe that. I had people not only introduce me to the banks and other business owners. I had people connecting me with their favorite coffee distributors, to where they get their milk from. People showed me how to brew cups of coffee.
I source as many products within the state as possible. I have a relationship with the people that I get my products from, and they roast my beans once a week and ship it up to me the next day. I know I’m serving my beans as fresh as possible to my customers. I’ve had a lot of people find my coffee trailer from Guthrie, Tulsa, Kingfisher, Stillwater, and take road trips out here to try Millie Coffee because they are just so excited to see my small trailer.
Honestly, I’m just waiting for someone to make a Hallmark movie about my life because I moved from this big city to now I own a coffee shop in a feed store parking lot. Like come on, now I just need a cowboy!
Room to Grow
I think the biggest reason why I love Oklahoma is, I view it as my platform to build myself into what I dream to be.
I always say Oklahoma is what you make it. I thought I was going to come to Oklahoma for the summer, then get up and go somewhere else, but it ended up being a place that I fell in love with and a place that I’m really happy to call home. I am so glad that I found my home in Oklahoma.
