Letter to my Former Self —
Cole,
Coming in to this program, I wanted to substantially impact a community this summer. That desire to impact change in the city of Detroit has not gone away — rather it has flourished. However, I have come to realize that one 20 year old who comes to the city for 10 weeks cannot possibly hope to have the kind of impact that I had so dearly hoped for when I eagerly applied for this program back in January — or even when I moved here in late May.
Change is not simple, change is not easy, change is not the norm, and as I’ve learned, sometimes change isn’t wanted!
Before you do something, you should have a plan as how to do it. And to create a plan for something, you need to have experience.
So my experience this summer was not in the “change” stage, but rather the pre-planning stage. The field work that I did in the last 10 weeks has helped me learn when change is necessary, how to implement it, and what a plan for the future of the city should look like.
I spent a lot of time looking at neighborhood assessments, the city’s strategic plan for the future, and speaking with community members about the future — and now I feel like I have more of a grasp on what I can do to help this city.
But, a lot of times in life, it’s not about what you can do, but what you will do. As a lifelong suburbanite, I’ve always felt that I can do something to help Detroit and its residents. Many people can sit in the back seat and say turn here, go there. And that’s what I’ve heard for a lot of my life — Detroit should do this, should do that — I would do this. Well, then why don’t you go do it yourself?
Because I stepped into the driver’s seat for one summer, and I didn’t realize the kind of oncoming traffic that was blitzing the city of Detroit.
Now, I know a little more about why change is hard to come by, and why its taken so many years of recovery to get to the point that Detroit is at today.
Because now I know that people aren’t trying to make this city a bustling city of 2 million and return to its industrial roots. I learned that Detroit needs to be rooted in its neighborhoods, and building solutions for the future starts with building solutions from the ground up — at the community level.
Now, I feel ready to make a plan for what I can do to seriously help Detroit and make a tangible impact on a community. But now, I have to leave :(. So while my brain is churning with ideas and solutions and bright thoughts about what the future of Detroit can be, I will return tomorrow to my suburban life and then move to Ann Arbor in the fall. BUT — now I have many new perspectives on issues that I thought I had figured out long ago. And it will be cool to revisit those things as I move forward with my life.
But that also means that I feel that my work in Detroit is not finished. I want to make a guarantee right now: Week 10 of this program will not be my last week in Detroit. And I’m looking forward to the future!!
Sincerely,
Cole Zingas
