this entry is meant to be a wrap-up for the year; the fellowship will soon be over and we’re on to our next adventures. my next adventrue began by chance all the way back in october of last year. i was feeling underutilized at my host company and sought out projects with last year’s fellow who was still there. we talked about an idea for an energy efficiency document/paper/presentation to make the case for approaching energy efficiency efforts on a city-wide scale, rather than on a building-to-building basis.

while doing some research, i found an organization called the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, which had a bunch of resources, and also a call for papers addressing building efficiency for the future. the papers were to be presented at the ACEEE’s Summer Study on Buildings, an annual conference that takes place in Pacific Grove, CA. if this was the bait, i took the bite. i wrote and submitted an abstract, using the premise of what we had discusses with our energy optimization team and the fact that detroit had scored second to last in energy efficiency on a ranking of 34 american cities. then i waited.

two months later, i was informed that my abstract had been accepted (yay!). but now i actually had to write the paper (boo). a first draft was due in march and after a month, i received edits from the conference panelists. several iterations and page reductions later, i sent in my final draft in late may. then we registered for the conference, reserved hotel rooms, and bought plane tickets.

i had had this thought in the back of my mind since learning about the conference: it could be a culmination – having something i worked on throughout the year – a way to go out strong. and while i was already in california, why not hang around and travel? tour some grad schools, visit some beautiful cities, and take some time for myself after a big year.

so that’s where you’ll find me. for the last week of my fellowship, i’ll be sitting in on sessions about energy efficiency efforts happening around the country, presenting my paper to a panel and audience of industry professionals, and networking my butt off. from there, i’ll make my way to san francisco, stay for a couple days, fly to seattle, stay a couple more days, fly back home to my parents’ in wisconsin and relax with them for a week before returning to detroit and continuing my job search.

i hope to come back and find fulfilling work in this meaningful city. it’s been a pleasure to live, work, play, give, and lead here. cheers to my fellow fellows, shelley and deirdre, and all of challenge detroit for making it a year well spent.