{"id":17077,"date":"2016-09-30T17:23:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T17:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=17077"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:23:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T17:23:34","slug":"new-flavor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/new-flavor\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Flavor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Detroit changed tremendously over the past eight years that I spent in school. I struggled to stay in touch through short summer stints and the same media that the rest of the world relies on. Corruption, bankruptcy, and violence dominated the headlines. And these\u00a0sensational stories\u00a0conditioned my\u00a0mind even though I\u00a0knew they were only\u00a0soundbites and snapshots.<\/p>\n<p>Lately, I&#8217;ve found this to be quite problematic. These small glimpses just don&#8217;t paint the whole picture.\u00a0I used to feel like \u201cI am the city and the city is me,\u201d but sometimes\u00a0I\u2019m not so sure.\u00a0You see,\u00a0now that I\u2019ve returned for good, I feel like a fraud, uncomfortable walking my old stomping grounds. \u00a0Impostor syndrome has a new flavor. It&#8217;s called \u201cyou\u2019re not really from here\u201d and sometimes it\u2019s hard to wash the taste from my mouth.<\/p>\n<p>Today those headlines often speak of transformation, revitalization, and renaissance. In\u00a0reality, I changed too. I left the city for what amounts to about\u00a0a third of my lifetime and learned more than I thought I ever would. I came back because of my desire to impact the city that made me who I am. Yet, it&#8217;s hard to ignore my\u00a0discomfort\u00a0with the place I once knew.\u00a0Imagine my surprise when I realized that my attentiveness\u00a0to my surroundings now stems much more from fear rather than the caution of old. And in that same breath, I find\u00a0recent\u00a0developments that don&#8217;t\u00a0feel like they\u00a0were designed with me\u00a0in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m searching for\u00a0a\u00a0place to lay my newly carved piece in\u00a0Detroit&#8217;s complex puzzle. I&#8217;m\u00a0a native newcomer, both\u00a0an insider and\u00a0outsider. I don&#8217;t know what my fit feels like, but I know it will take effort and patience. As the city continues its transformation, I will be there to witness it. I will grow with it as I reconcile my mixed feelings and\u00a0emerge as a change agent for Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-17534\" src=\"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/blog-bio-photo-300x300.gif\" alt=\"Greg Hardy\" width=\"135\" height=\"135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/blog-bio-photo-300x300.gif 300w, https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/blog-bio-photo-150x150.gif 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 135px) 100vw, 135px\" \/>Greg is an engineer and social change agent\u00a0with a talent for taking things apart and putting them back together. Follow on Instagram\/Twitter @stemavenue<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Detroit changed tremendously over the past eight years that I spent in school. I struggled to stay in touch through short summer stints and the same media that the rest of the world relies on. Corruption, bankruptcy, and violence dominated the headlines. And these\u00a0sensational stories\u00a0conditioned my\u00a0mind even though I\u00a0knew they were only\u00a0soundbites and snapshots. Lately, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":17536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17,19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leaddetroit","category-livedetroit","category-detroit","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17077","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\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}