Dear Zoe,
You’re not necessarily back at home, but you are in your hometown. It’s way out of your comfort zone, but nonetheless, it’ll be a good experience worth learning from. You can explore parts of the city you’ve never been to, like Southwest, Corktown, or the Eastside and find some great food places. Let’s face it, the money you spend will be on food, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s also interesting people within this program. Outside of the three people you already knew coming in, there’ll be someone you’ll click with.
Look forward to working at Develop Detroit. Yes, some of the reading about housing, mortgages, property taxes, etc. are dense, but there’s a bigger picture. Everything you’re learning within the first week will be good info to have once you’re assigned a project to work on. Any arduous tasks will be worth it when the enday result is giving back to your city through providing affordable housing and other community services to disadvantaged naighborhoods. You can handle it.
I expect for you to get out of your comfort zone alot though, and that’ll be good for you. There are times where you need to speak up and make you’re presence known. That transformation from silent to social won’t be immediate, but it can happen through putting yourself out there and being open to conversing with others. It’s not your strong suit. I think that by the end of this program, you’ll be more vocal in settings filled with strangers.
I think you’ll also get a newfound appreciation and perception of your city. Granted, you never thought poorly of it in the first place, but the DCBRP and Develop Detroit could help see the potential in our city. Detroit isn’t a bad place, but it’s easier to say it is when its issues are so complex. However, with each day that passes, you’ll learn something new, value something small, and understand how your city was great, still is, and can rise back up to its fullest potential through community actions/service. The people made Detroit, literally and figuratively.
Hi Zoe!
I love how you are working on yourself socially, exploring Detroit, and bettering the community. Anyway, I’m always down to explore and talk! I’ll see you soon because I think you’re coming over to deep condition with Dominique, so we can hang out!
Bye,
Daria