{"id":12028,"date":"2013-09-09T02:28:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T02:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/annabalzer\/?p=4"},"modified":"2013-09-09T02:28:14","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T02:28:14","slug":"d-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/d-day\/","title":{"rendered":"“D” Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve lived a lot of places.<\/p>\n

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Most of my life I lived in Perrysburg, Ohio- probably one of the most stereotypical suburban areas in the Midwest (almost every house has a minivan and a golden retriever). Then I moved to Boulder, Colorado for college- a BIG move, but not a big change (still lots of golden retrievers, but less minivans and more Subarus).<\/p>\n

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I lived in a mountain town in Costa Rica for a few months where you were always slightly damp and there was a good chance you’d woken up by monkeys and I’ve also lived in Bowling Green, Ohio, an odd blend of a stereotypical college town and the home of the National Tractor Pull.<\/p>\n

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But two weeks ago, I made the first move of my life that felt real, felt important, and also a little permanent.<\/p>\n

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Two weeks ago, I moved to Detroit.<\/p>\n

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I could lie and say that I’m an experienced traveller with pockets full of city smarts, but in reality, I had no idea what to expect. Cities had always seemed a little too big, a little too impersonal, a little\u2026 overwhelming. So when I moved into my 23 story building, with the Joe Louis Arena and GM Renaissance building as my next door neighbors, I thought, perhaps, I had gotten myself in over my head.<\/p>\n

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But then, on my way into the building, a woman showed me the secret elevator and asked about my job. Then, later, when I couldn’t find the building’s restaurant, a couple walked my roommate and me to the door. When I went for a walk along the riverfront the next day, a man fishing asked me how my day was and another happily gave me directions to the volleyball court (the obvious theme here is that I get lost a lot). But the thing that really resonated with me was when, on my first day on the job, a woman looked me in the eye and said, “Welcome. We’re happy to have you and Detroit is ready for you to make it your home.”<\/p>\n

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\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I realized then, that I am lucky to be here. I’ve lived plenty of places, but I’ve never been welcomed or felt as welcome as I do here. I am in a place that wants me to be involved, wants me to contribute and wants me to stay. Jeanette Pierce of D:Hive says it best; “Detroit is a place big enough to matter to the rest of the world, but small enough that you matter here.”<\/p>\n

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So I’m here. I’m living in a city with its fair share of problems, but also a community teeming with creativity and tenacity, and a community ready for change. I am living in Detroit. And, finally, I am home.<\/p>\n

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I’ve lived a lot of places.   Most of my life I lived in Perrysburg, Ohio- probably one of the most stereotypical suburban areas in the Midwest (almost every house has a minivan and a golden retriever). Then I moved to Boulder, Colorado for college- a BIG move, but not a big change (still lots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}