The past year of my life has revolved around being a Challenge Detroit Fellow. This proved to be a whirlwind of balancing two intense jobs, learning a new city, educating myself about the culture of the Midwest, and meeting goals in my personal life. It was an honor to be a Challenge Detroit Fellow. Sure, there were frustrations at certain points during the year, but there is beauty in the struggle.

I moved to Detroit with little knowledge of the city. For the first 5 or 6 months, I was trying to understand why people would live in a place that received 16 inches of snow in one day, why “Gratiot” and “Schoenherr” are pronounced the way they are, and how to dress at a Big 10 football game (attire is quite different in the South).

As I gained more knowledge of the city, state, and region, I knew I would eventually hit a point in the year where everything finally clicked. It came around March, which was the 6 month mark of the fellowship. I felt secure at my job, confident in navigating Detroit, and knowledgeable about the city’s past and current issues. Most importantly, the snow began to melt and there was hope that Michigan could have temperatures above 20 degrees (please excuse my jabs – my house from 1898 was wonderful but had as much insulation as a windbreaker). As everything began to fire on all cylinders, it was time to get out there and see Tiger’s games, go up north to the Upper Peninsula and Mackinac Island, visit East Lansing, visit Ann Arbor, go to Faster Horses in southern Michigan, explore Birmingham, Bloomfield, Royal Oak, Ferndale, go to Belle Isle, hang out at the Woodbridge music festival, see Michigan State’s botanical garden in Adrian, and take trips out of town as well. It’s difficult to comprehend how quickly the time passed and how much I was able to experience.
As the fellowship comes to a close, I have without a doubt come to know Detroit and Southeast Michigan intricately. I have helped people navigate their way around the city, recommended to people places to go, and had great conversations with city leaders as well as less fortunate people on the streets. Due in large part to the leadership at Challenge Detroit, I have learned more about this great American city in one year than I have about most other places I’ve lived for much longer amounts of time. In fact, co-workers of mine who have lived in Southeast Michigan their entire life relied on me to get them around the city and update them on its current events sometimes.

Friends and family of mine are happy to see I made it through one year of living in Detroit unscathed. Of course, this is the mindset the fellowship combats everyday. I will without a doubt advocate for the city and continue to promote it wherever I go. I love to tell people how prideful native Detroiter’s are. It is well known that Detroit is nitty-gritty, authentic, and hard-nosed. Before long, it will also be well known that Detroit is vibrant, unique, and a one-of-a-kind place.

Thank you to the Challenge Detroit leadership team, the Year Three Fellows, and to anyone who has followed my fellowship experience through my blog posts. God bless.