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Revelations in Detroit

When Felipe and I arrived in Detroit two weeks ago, we encountered the first challenge of our ten weeks together this summer – renting a car. As 19-year-olds we can only legally rent a car in Michigan or New York, the reason we are starting this summer in Detroit, but that ability comes with a $50-a-day fee for underage driving. Thus, our rental car bill got an addition of $1600 and only one of us could drive.

As the US citizen, and at the time, the only one legally able to work due to visa issues, I took on that role. I quickly realized that I absolutely hated driving more than an hour. On Monday, a drive to the Dow Chemical headquarters in Midland took two hours each way and left me feeling completely exhausted. By Thursday, I had given up on driving solo the whole summer, and we went back to Thrifty to add Felipe as a secondary driver.



Other than the challenges of driving, Detroit was amazing. We came in with low expectations for the area, and left completely astounded and in love with the city. That was almost entirely due to a tour that QuickenLoans organized for us. The guide took us all over downtown Detroit, and for an hour and a half, pointed out how the city had been modernized and improved over the past years. Multiple sports teams moved downtown. Businesses were now clamoring to find downtown real estate to put storefronts in. People were walking around and working in the public areas outside. Everything was being renovated through a partnership between private companies and the public government.

We had no idea that Detroit would be that beautiful. In January, we will be leading a trip to Chicago to visit with companies there. But after spending four days in Detroit, we have slightly regretted our choice of destination. Chicago is the safe choice, the city where there will be something for everyone, but the story of Detroit, the resurgence, is much more compelling.

This was our first week of meetings and we were nervous to ask for money. Surprisingly, the thousands of dollars in donations that we were asking for didn’t faze the people that we were meeting with. We ended up with positive interest from different companies, but only a confirmed yes from a long-term donor. Our biggest challenge this summer will be turning those maybes into a percentage of yeses, but that’s what we are being paid for.

Being in the Midwest, I didn’t anticipate being able to see too many of my friends here, but I had plans with someone every night that we were in Michigan. After the drive to Dow, I had dinner with my future roommate and his family. On the other two nights, I met up some old friends from chess and high school. A very common question was why are you in Michigan. It’s a question that I will probably be asked in every place that I am in until we get to Chicago, so I’ll just have to explain how this summer will definitely be completely different than what most freshmen ever get to experience.

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