Just about six months ago, I sat in my apartment in Ithaca, NY trying to complete my Challenge Detroit application, contemplating this prompt: Challenge Detroit aims to make incremental impact and acknowledges the many ways individuals and groups / organizations can create impact. Share a story of a recent experience that illustrates how and why you have made an impact (in your community, school, work, personal environment, etc).

 I was applying to Challenge Detroit, but I had no idea what it meant. All I knew was that this prompt made my heart and mind race with excitement. Just thinking about being a part of a program that was dedicated to achieving goals that were so near and dear to my heart drove me to work tirelessly on the application.

The response I submitted chronicled a project I designed and ran at Camp Seneca Lake for our Tikkun Olam: Repair the World Day. I wrote, “…It was June 27^th and as I looked around, I was reminded that it is not only our physical accomplishments that change the world, but our dedication to one another, the community and the world that really make a difference.”

Fast forward three months and I found myself sitting in a synagogue in Southfield, Michigan celebrating the Jewish New Year amongst complete strangers. After people watching for much of the service, I started to read the commentary in the columns of the prayer book. I was fascinated by the words and interpretations of the prayers that thousands of others, including myself, had chanted for centuries. After reading a handful of quotes, I was struck by how quickly I applied each quote to Detroit, its current challenges, its unbelievable resilience, and passionate community.

The interpretation that inspired this blog, titled “Tikkun Olam—Repair the World”, reads as follows: “If you see what needs to be repaired and how to repair it, then you have found a piece of the world that God has left for you to complete. But if you only see what is wrong and what is ugly in the world, then it is you yourself that needs repair.”

I have only been in Detroit for one month and already my mind is processing information differently. Never before had I so much as turned my head at the mention of Detroit. Now, I can’t stop thinking about it, even while reading old scriptures.

Six months after beginning the application process in my apartment in Ithaca, I am a real part of the program whose application made my heart and mind race. Each day, the other fellows, my coworkers, neighbors and our challenges force me to reach towards being the first person this quote describes—the one who takes the time to listen closely, has an open mind, and is always willing to help. So often, Detroit is portrayed as wrong and ugly, a dangerous and dying place. I have to admit, for a long time I simply accepted this portrayal, as well. This quote reminds me that I need to constantly question the news I read and words I hear, not just in Detroit, but also around the world. I am so excited to continue to repair myself and Detroit in any way I can over the next 11 months and beyond.