{"id":13004,"date":"2015-06-30T16:52:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T16:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/courtneyhardebeck\/?p=135"},"modified":"2015-06-30T16:52:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T16:52:58","slug":"wrapping-up-with-challenge-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wrapping-up-with-challenge-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia: Challenge Detroit Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of our first tasks during Challenge Detroit Orientation was to write a &#8220;TED Talk&#8221; style presentation about ourselves and share it to our co-fellows and the Challenge Detroit Leadership team.\u00a0 My talk was about &#8220;Nostalgia&#8221;.\u00a0 As we approach the end of our Challenge Detroit year, I am reflecting on how much I have learned and grown.\u00a0 I feel like it is fitting for me to share my &#8220;TED Talk&#8221; as my blog post this month.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;text-align: center\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/courtneyhardebeck\/files\/2015\/06\/nostalgia.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-138\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/courtneyhardebeck\/files\/2015\/06\/nostalgia-219x300.jpg\" alt=\"nostalgia\" width=\"219\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;text-align: center\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000\">Nostalgia:<br \/>\n<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;text-align: center\"><em>It&#8217;s delicate, but potent.\u00a0 In Greek, &#8220;nostalgia&#8221; literally means the pain from an old wound.&#8221;\u00a0 It&#8217;s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone &#8211; a feeling of place where we ache to go again.<\/em><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Those who know me, know that I am extremely <span class=\"il\">nostalgic<\/span>. \u00a0I am greatly affected by my surroundings and easily get attached. \u00a0The ironic thing is that while I have a hard time dealing with transition, I find myself constantly pursuing new things.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">I recognized this feeling of inner turmoil at a young age. \u00a0I spent a lot of time with my babysitters and I found myself crying when I was dropped off because I did not want to leave my parents and then crying when I got picked up because I did not want to leave my babysitters. \u00a0It was hard for me because I loved them both and knew that I couldn&#8217;t stay with both of them all of the time. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">This same feeling crept in when I would go to and from college, I would be stressed and sad to go home for the summer, and at the end of the summer I would not want to go back to school. I deal with this roller-coaster of emotions every time I move from one experience to another. Sometimes, I ask myself why I keep pursuing these new things, where I meet new people and live in new places that are just going to become more to miss later. Sometimes I think it would have been easier if I had just stayed in Kentucky.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">But when I think about how much I have grown throughout my years of emotional transitions, and about the genuine relationships I have formed with people I would have otherwise never found, \u00a0I am overwhelmed with gratitude. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">The biggest problem with being a <span class=\"il\">nostalgic<\/span> person who is always on the verge of transition is not in the pain of the goodbyes or in the stress of moving, it is that I am often a step behind my present experience. \u00a0In my constant state of <span class=\"il\">nostalgia<\/span>, I miss out on the moment. I want to avoid this in our Challenge Detroit year. This year, I want to practice being fully present and engaged. \u00a0This goal has pushed me to be reflective about my outlook on time.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Although I know it is natural to long for the past and that I will continue to be <span class=\"il\">nostalgic<\/span>,\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: arial,sans-serif\">I find comfort in knowing that my life chapters\u00a0are not erasable&#8230;\u00a0once I have met someone or had an experience, I can never un-meet them or un-have that experience. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">So, what I gather from all of this is that we are all a collection of our experiences. \u00a0And the trick isn&#8217;t to forget them or to deny ourselves the right to miss them, but to appreciate all that they have taught us and how they have shaped us.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">I am excited to immerse myself in our Challenge Detroit experience that will be full of great moments and people that I will miss deeply when it&#8217;s over.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Looking at my &#8220;TED Talk&#8221; from the other side of my Challenge Detroit experience, I can confidently verify that this year has been full of great moments and people that I will miss deeply when its over.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_27\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/courtneyhardebeck\/files\/2014\/10\/challengeDetroit-Group-Photo-Ukranian-Disney.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-27\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/courtneyhardebeck\/files\/2014\/10\/challengeDetroit-Group-Photo-Ukranian-Disney-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Ukranian Disneyland \" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-27\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Year 3 Challenge Detroit Fellows<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of our first tasks during Challenge Detroit Orientation was to write a &#8220;TED Talk&#8221; style presentation about ourselves and share it to our co-fellows and the Challenge Detroit Leadership team.\u00a0 My talk was about &#8220;Nostalgia&#8221;.\u00a0 As we approach the end of our Challenge Detroit year, I am reflecting on how much I have learned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}