Hello! Thank you for stopping by my personal blog space. I am happy you\u2019re here! I want to briefly touch on some of the things I’ve come to experience since moving to Detroit. While brief in nature I hope they inspire you to visit Greater Detroit, explore, and be surrounded by some pretty interesting folks. Michigan is a state that caught my heart, through and through. This state and Detroit have so much to offer– seasons, beautiful summers, diverse landscapes, Great Lakes, and so much more! It’s worth reading about, but more importantly a destination you should put on your list!<\/p>\n
I moved to Detroit from another urban area, Indianapolis, Indiana. I\u2019ve traveled internationally, lived internationally, and been to some pretty cool places in the United States. Detroit is a place like no other I\u2019ve lived or visited\u2014 Detroit empowers me, moves me, shakes me, and gives me a sense of home that I\u2019ve been longing for. I am grateful and happy to be here, I hope you will continue reading as I reflect upon the many things I\u2019ve learned through discussions, presentations, and interactions with strangers, it is because of them I feel welcome here.<\/p>\n
I came to Detroit a little early. Challenge Detroit didn\u2019t officially begin until a month after I moved here. I took advantage of the time off and fully embraced what the city has to offer. I biked, ran, toured, and got a sense of what to expect from living downtown while commuting to the suburbs for work. As an active person and also as someone who is an outsider, learning your surroundings the active way is the best way in my opinion! I love my apartment, my neighborhood, and I LOVE living in the city. There\u2019s something about loving the space you live in, not the apartment space per se, but really the\u00a0space<\/em> in which surrounds you. All the pieces fit, and I fit within those pieces. It\u2019s truly an amazing feeling!<\/p>\n Once our boot camp week started I was full of excitement! Life was falling into all the right places. Honestly, the excitement continues today. We\u2019ve only had a few Fridays working alongside each other and with other organizations on behalf of Challenge Detroit, but I feel refreshed every time we gather in a room together to synthesize our ideas, share our experiences, and hear from people who live, work and play in Greater Detroit.<\/p>\n I looked forward to the start of the fellowship\u00a0year all summer long. Really<\/strong><\/em>. We heard from so many influential people\u2014 government officials, organizers, community leaders, as well as many nonprofits. There are so many positive things happening in Detroit, and there are so many movers and shakers that see Detroit\u2019s potential despite some of its current challenges. We heard from many of them, and I\u2019m coming to find that many of these discussions bear a heavy weight on those who tackle them. We heard about plans to improve the city\u2019s infrastructure, what individual neighborhoods are doing to organize and create safe spaces for children and those who reside here, learned about the history of the neighborhoods through our D:Hive<\/em> Detroit Experience Factory<\/em> <\/strong><\/a>tour, and spoke with your average Detroiter during our first design thinking <\/a><\/strong><\/em>exercise.<\/p>\n The downtown culture is vibrant and active, the food and cultural neighborhoods are diverse and fun, and the spaces are unlike many cities I\u2019ve visited and lived in. Detroiters are a one of a kind people\u2014 they have grit, they have passion, they\u2019re positive, hopeful, and loyal to this city. The city is large, but small enough where I feel like I and my opinions matter. I\u2019m proud to be part of this program, and I\u2019m happy to have my heart and mind open to the possibilities. Maybe soon I\u2019ll have the street cred to say I\u2019m a Michigander!<\/p>\n This year will be enlightening, exhausting, insightful,<\/em> and most definitely shape<\/em> the way I think about urban environments. Detroit is truly at a pivotal time in its history. It is a city in which adapts to the people who reside here\u2014the artists, the businessmen and women, innovation, creation, and development. As Detroit evolves, I get to be part of its history and that\u2019s the coolest part!<\/p>\n One of my main goals is to transform the way people think about Detroit. I encourage anyone to come and visit to fully experience some of the cool things that happen here. There is great energy here, and there are people who work tirelessly to make Detroit a desirable place to be. There is so much more beyond the surface, I dare<\/strong><\/em> you to look past whatever misconceptions are out there.<\/p>\n I look forward to sharing with you my experiences, I hope you follow along!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello! Thank you for stopping by my personal blog space. I am happy you\u2019re here! I want to briefly touch on some of the things I’ve come to experience since moving to Detroit. While brief in nature I hope they inspire you to visit Greater Detroit, explore, and be surrounded by some pretty interesting folks. 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