{"id":23462,"date":"2018-12-14T23:26:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T23:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=23462"},"modified":"2018-12-14T23:26:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T23:26:30","slug":"built-in-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/built-in-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Built-in friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I can\u2019t count the number of phone calls I\u2019ve had with friends since graduating that revolve around the difficulty of starting a new job. When we graduated from university last year, we knew it would be tough to begin our careers, but we had underestimated just how lonely it could be. I feel very lucky to be able to rely on my Challenge fellows for a sense of community and the support networks that come along with it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">My friends who have begun traditional jobs tell me that it\u2019s difficult to make friends in a new city with their busy work schedules, and they miss the encouragement that comes with having an established group of friends. I\u2019m realize that I\u2019m in a unique position, to have the support and company of my diverse, motivated, and successful fellows, as most jobs don\u2019t allow for this kind of camaraderie. We give each other rides when our cars need work, we meet up for happy hour to de-stress after work at our host companies, we remind each other of important deadlines. This type of support network is invaluable, and very unique.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Challenge leadership has done careful work to encourage these connections: orientation week was like one long bonding session, interspersed with powerful trust exercises and increasingly intimate getting-to-know-you activities. The most powerful of these, in my mind, was a combination of both: the racial equity workshop. We did this just a couple weeks ago, which was an important timing decision, since we have built up trust and understanding of one another over the past four months. We shared things in this group that we haven\u2019t shared with anyone, and I deeply respect my colleagues for this vulnerability and communal accountability. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I\u2019m excited to form deeper relationships with my Challenge fellows: when people ask me how I like my job, I tell them I have 26 built-in friends!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-23463\" src=\"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/b73db46022d741f7b88dff7dcd428626-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/b73db46022d741f7b88dff7dcd428626-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/b73db46022d741f7b88dff7dcd428626-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/b73db46022d741f7b88dff7dcd428626.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can\u2019t count the number of phone calls I\u2019ve had with friends since graduating that revolve around the difficulty of starting a new job. When we graduated from university last year, we knew it would be tough to begin our careers, but we had underestimated just how lonely it could be. I feel very lucky [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23462","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\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}