Many of us already know that our minds seem to instinctively latch on to patterns. You’ve probably read it somewhere before; your mind is a pattern-seeking machine finding and making inferences where they probably don’t exist.

Patterns allows us to learn. They grant us a degree, however small it might be, of foresight. Understandably then, there is a well known, pattern-centric formula that we as rational individuals follow (most of us anyway) before committing to important, life-altering decisions: Observe an action from afar, and if that action produces a desirable result, repeat (also known as ‘monkey see, monkey do’). It’s not a bold strategy by any means, but it does produce results. Unfortunately, they’re incremental, bite-sized results. Over time, society inadvertently constructs a pattern for success. That pattern does not include moving to a city like Detroit.

For the past 18 or so months, my one-size-fits-all, pattern-recognition machine called a brain has been trying to make sense of something; I’ve made more friends in my post-graduate return to Detroit, than I’ve ever had throughout my entire life. These are not just acquaintances. These are meaningful, well-built relationships with people around my age, fresh from the dorms of college campuses across the U.S. and flown in from locations that I’d consider almost exotic as a native Detroiter: San Fransisco, Portland, Los Angeles and more. Why, I wonder, are so many mid-twenty somethings moving to Detroit from their life’s get-go?

If I had to give an answer, it would come down to what pursuing a ‘safe bet’ entails. It would come back to the idea that perhaps this generation isn’t quite content with the incremental, cautious progress that comes with a shiny plaque and an underwhelming feeling of achievement. It would involve a growing awareness of the world around us, only recently granted to us by our close connection to technology, and our disapproval of what we’ve observed traditional pattern seeking behavior accomplishing for most of the world today. Following a ‘safe bet’ might sound like a phrase to live by, but it’s a phrase that often only takes into consideration the benefit of a single individual. Ultimately, it can really only get you and the impact you hope to have on those around you so far. The world has enough people looking out for themselves, and it’s knowledge that I think Detroit’s newcomers are equipped with.

Detroit may not be the most conventional choice for someone just stepping into the real world, but for a generation of people that understand ‘conventional’ is often overrated, it’s one of few places they want to be. So far, Challenge Detroit and the fellows I’ve been lucky enough to meet have helped me understand the answer to this exciting, new pattern.