So since moving back to “the D,” I’ve had the opportunity to reconnect with some of my good friends from high school who have also moved back to Detroit.

It’s so interesting being in the city again with some of my good friends, because when I left for college in 2009, I was only 17 years old. Now, I’m experiencing the adult side of Detroit and I must say, its AMAZING. My hangout crew in HS consisted of the “fab 4,” (China, Shaunte and Kristian), my best friend Oscar and Victoria to name a few. Our adventures were endless, and the memories are as well. When I switched HS’s, I met the Ashley’s (Ashley T, Ashley L, and Ashlei L), and we became close friends. I went to summer school at Cranbrook and met some of my closest friends there, including my BFF James and L-V, who also went to Denison.

During high school, my friends and I went to the movies/ bowling a lot, we’d go to each other’s houses for movie nights, and we’d scour the city for adventures that were affordable for teenagers (a.k.a FREE!) such as the festivals in Hart Plaza. We’d go to teen night at the Northwest Activities Center, and hang out at Oakland mall.

Since returning, our priorities are a bit different!

Now, we have begun attending easy listening jazz bars, favorite of course being Baker’s Lounge, we’ve bar hopped in Detroit and surrounding suburbs, we’ve traveled to area colleges/universities, we interact with each other’s families, and we actually have our own places to hangout! It’s fun and different , but I still reminisce about the times when we’d get dropped off at the movies and picked up by our mom’s before dark! It’s just SO awesome to rediscover the city that I love so much, and Challenge Detroit has given me some awesome suggestions on places to go that we had never even considered. Juggling family and friends back in high school was a piece of cake, but now, its a smidge harder 🙂 Not to mention, I have 30 new fellow fellows/friends too. Right, I know. All this juggling could get pretty messy, huh?!