Growing up, my dad would ask us what we learned at school that day. If we were able to describe it to him with ease and have him understand, that meant we actually learned, paid attention and understood what we were taught. I used to think he did that to make sure my younger brother was going to school, but now I see the purpose. Because of my father’s antics, I have gone into everything I’ve done trying to fully understand it. Until recently, I realized I had not.

I’m a native Detroiter. I may not have been born here (that’s a thing: where people say I’m not a Detroiter even though I was raised here but not born here, tuh!) but Detroit will forever be my home. But moving away and deciding to move back really got me thinking about what I KNEW about Detroit. I knew what it was like living in Detroit, or my neighborhood at least, but what else did I know? I knew the Lions were cursed, the Renaissance Center is the most confusing building in the city, the east side of the city could use some love, and that Cass Technical High School was Number One, Second to None. But was that enough? That’s it? I racked my brain in the year I decided to move back to The City and I made a realization that I hadn’t EXPERIENCED Detroit.

I’ve said this plenty of times before that I never felt like I lived in Detroit but never really LIVED! So my goal since moving back (and now for the New Year… some call it a resolution, of sorts), is to experience and engage in things that contribute to the Detroit Experience. Apparently, I’ll feel like a real Detroiter in my eyes after completing these things:

  • Go to a Red Wings game (preferably before the Joe is closed forever… I’ve also never been to the Joe Louis Arena before)
  • Go to a Lions game (I’ve been to plenty of graduations and high school football games but never a Lions game… shame, shame)
  • Go shopping at Eastern Market (maybe the idea of shopping and vegetables kept me away when I was younger but I have evolved and it’s time I made a visit)
  • View an exhibit at the Charles H. Wright Museum (the last time I went was in middle school and I was kind of traumatized by the slave boat portion of the exhibit… that trauma has formed into curiosity and I’m intrigued by the variety of exhibits the museum offers)
  • Eat at 20 restaurants on Detroit Experience Factory’s downtown and neighborhood restaurants guide (how can you go wrong with adding eating on my Detroit To Do list? Answer: you can’t)
  • Explore Southwest Detroit/Mexicantown (currently on the hunt for an amazing elote and el pastor torta)
  • Run a marathon: Detroit – Windsor Marathon, perhaps (I don’t think this a staple “Detroit thing” but I would love to actually run a marathon at home!)
  • Go on a Detroit Brewery tour (honestly, I don’t even care for beer. But I lived in Grand Rapids – Beer City and did plenty of brewery tours so I feel like I owe Detroit’s brewery scene the same love)
  • Visit each historical site in Detroit (randomly walking around the city reading those plaques really educates me on Detroit’s history and I would absolutely love finding them all… like PokemonGo but educational)
  • Go on a picnic at Belle Isle eating only Detroit made products (including bags on bags of the BetterMade Chips that I love so much)

Granted, maybe some of these things may not “officially” make me more of a Detroiter in others’ eyes. But to me, they’re all a part of The Detroit Experience and I look forward to creating a stronger bond with the city that raised me! J