Over the years I have lived in several different locations. Right before moving to Detroit, I lived in South Korea for two years, and in two different cities throughout my time there. You would think I’d be an expert at adjusting to new places and starting new jobs. I may be better at it than many, but it\u2019s still a struggle for me. There is always that awkward period where you are trying to carve out a space for yourself, find your tribe and that feeling of belongingness. I am currently in that awkward period.<\/p>\n
I have officially lived in Detroit for 6 months now. I\u2019ve been able to form a few solid friendships (being in the fellowship program helps with that), I have somewhat of a routine and a sense of comfort at my host company and I feel the challenge projects are not as confusing now that I\u2019ve been through the process a few times. However, I still\u00a0do not 100%\u00a0feel like Detroit\u00a0is “home” for me. I was having a conversation with another fellow the other day, and we came to a consensus that “home” is the place where you have the strongest and most fulfilling connections with others.<\/p>\n
We are living during a time when everything happens very quickly. We don\u2019t like to wait and prefer to use methods\u00a0that can speed things up a bit; accessing transportation, finding a date, getting a meal, communicating with others\u2026we have apps for all of that now. However, some things just can\u2019t be rushed, and no matter how uncomfortable it may be, you have to go on the journey to reach the destination. I was talking to my dad about my experience living in a new location and he told me, \u201cwell you will probably have to wait at least 3 years to truly feel like it’s home\u201d. My immediate thought\u00a0was, \u201cNo! I want Detroit to feel like home now! I want a solid social network now! I want to have deep connections with my co workers now\u201d!<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not how things always wor![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_2340-300x300.jpg\")
k though. Patience is becoming a lost art and I want to work on discovering it for myself. I have a dry erase board in my room where I post encouraging messages that I can see first thing when I get out of bed in the morning. The three bullet points I currently have on the board are:
\n\u2022 Job success doesn\u2019t happen overnight
\n\u2022 Relationship building takes time\/effort
\n\u2022 What are you doing today to see the results you want tomorrow?<\/p>\n
I need to have faith and recognize that just because I may sometimes feel disconnected from my community\u00a0now\u00a0doesn\u2019t mean that I will feel disconnected always. Putting in the work can be exhausting, and oftentimes I get tired of being around new people and engaging in awkward conversations with new acquaintances. I wish I could get a dollar for every time I get the, \u201cwhat do you do\u201d? question in the span of a week.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all a part of the journey of settling in a new city and starting a new job, and as long as I put forth the time and effort, I will inevitably start seeing the results that I seek. I guess I\u2019ll stay encouraged and enjoy the newness of it all, allowing the future possibilities of \u201cwhat could be\u201d excite me.<\/p>\n
-Gabrial Taylor:<\/p>\n
Year 5 Challenge Detroit Fellow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the years I have lived in several different locations. Right before moving to Detroit, I lived in South Korea for two years, and in two different cities throughout my time there. You would think I’d be an expert at adjusting to new places and starting new jobs. I may be better at it than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19356","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\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}