stares

...i'm not talking about 190+ stairs i run each Sunday during boot camp with Rodney (who is the Ohio body builder champ as of Saturday to help you get a little visual...) but rather the many stares I've experienced living in this community.

The other day a friend of mine requested some 'magno arizona tea and jay's bbq chips with the ridges'- so i went to 'the store' as the kids would say, this means the gas station and got just that...juice and chips. In the first year I lived here i was too scared to even get gas at the gas station much less go inside and buy chips. But, I've long been over that and stood there amongst my community buying juice and chips. I wish you could have been an onlooker, I could almost feel the eyes burning on me with the questions of what is she doing here. I know I stick out like a sore thumb but I'm oddly comfortable with that because of what it stands for. (I also jump at an opportunity to go into 'the store' to take advantage of all the quarter candy at the checkout. It's the best!)

The store is only the beginning of the stares, but as the result of living and working in the community many of those stares have changed to hellos and for that I'm grateful. People seemed a little skeptical in the beginning- young, college-grad, white, girl...not a recipe for the ghetto of Detroit. But, through bbq's, sleepovers, and lawn-mowing understanding soon took over. I simply became a neighbor, one that happened to be ok with large crowds of children eating pancakes on her porch.

Though people still stare and the occasional mom demands an explanation of how south dakota ended up in detroit, my three years here have been a success. I have truly been blessed by this community that has grown in me a love for BBQ chicken and fat beats (i can already hear my mom...fat beats? haha) but also a passion and desire for this to be my life no matter where I land. Loving people and living with them and figuring out life together, even if that means people will continue to stare.