To say that the month of September has been a month of adjustments would be an understatement. New apartment, new city, new job, new routine; it’s been quite a ride.

I’ve lived in Garden City my whole life. Same city, same house, same bedroom, hell, I’ve even only moved my bed once. I’ve always lived so close to Detroit, and I spent so much time around here. Shows at the Magic Stick and St. Andrew’s, Autorama with my dad at Cobo Hall, ice skating at Campus Martius. The things that people from the suburbs come to Detroit to do. Did I ever expect to be living down here? No, not really.

I commuted throughout college as a way to save money. I missed out on that “college experience” that everyone speaks so fondly of. I graduated this past April from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in journalism and communications. When I started college, I had these plans of graduating and moving to a big city to write for a music magazine. Throughout school, my plans simplified a bit, after slowly learning how little money was in music writing, if any at all. I had pretty much become accustomed to working for “the experience.” So I opened my mind to something other than journalism as a possibility.

Anything to get me a break from retail. I worked at Victoria’s Secret for two years and Hot Topic as a manager for one. I was tired of working all weekend every weekend. I was ready for a more consistent schedule. I felt like I was in a rut. Not the traditional sense where your life is such a routine that you’re bored, but I was spending eight hours a day in the mall in my hometown, attaining a degree that I didn’t have a whole lot of faith in doing something with.

This is where Challenge Detroit comes in. A new job, a new city, a chance to move out of my parent’s house, a chance to contribute to the community. Since I was someone just receiving their bachelor’s degree with most of my experience being in unpaid work and service jobs, I figured it was a long shot. I was surprised every time I made it to the next round, and I never in a million years expected to actually be chosen for the fellowship. I’m glad I was and I’m confident that this year will be life-changing.

It’s a balancing act, managing my time between Challenge Detroit, my new job, meeting the new fellows and discovering more about the city, as well as keeping in touch and not neglecting my friends that live a mere 30 minutes away. I haven’t worked out a perfect system yet, but hey, I have 11 more months to figure it out.