Dear Self;
You are through. it’s the second to last day of work and your final report is done, sent off to your supervisor. Your time in the dorms is drawing to a close and you are dreading the tetris game of packing your trunk up. Endings always have to be marked somehow, and in appropriately circular fashion, this ending is eulogized in a glance back to the beginning.
Coming into this program, I emphasized that I wanted to absorb information on the water system, to learn much and more about the inner “plumbing” (ha! sorry) of metro-Detroit’s water and sewerage. I think it is more than safe to say that I have. What I did not expect, however, is that my time in Detroit would also include front line activism on what became one of the biggest issues in the public’s eyes: water shut offs. So, in this summer, I learned more than water politics: I learned how to defend my position under fire, how community organization can take place on the fly and how to rally, petition and advertise a controversial issue. I think it’s safe to say that this experience has changed me, and even introduced some thoughtful changes to my personal outlook and philosophy.
I saw a lot of Detroit this summer, it’s many facets and different neighborhoods. I don’t think my opinion of Detroit as “one thing yet many things” has changed… but it has become more nuanced. Going on runs through the Woodbridge neighborhood or even the Midtown area I often would have dual revelations… 1)wow! what a cool apartment/restaurant/street, I’d love to live/eat/stay there and 2)this seems sketchy. One thought doesn’t preclude the other… but neither do the two spheres exist entirely in harmony.
Speaking of cool apartments, I could certainly see myself living in Detroit. I visited many apartments of my friends who live here and was entranced with the notion (I must admit). So maybe, in a few years, I could look into it…. in the meantime, I hope to continue visiting Detroit, and work here again next summer….
So as much as this is an ending of sorts, it is hardly a finality. There’s more an air of a slightly open door in a restaurant that you’ve just discovered. Your meal of today is done, but you are certain that you’ll be back for more.
(Maybe even next week! I promised to take my boyfriend to Honest Johns….and to Mudgies… and we want to go to a MOCAD event….oh jeez!)
Fare thee Well
Final Week Freida
