I've always struggled with introductions - whether it's an intro to a research paper or essay, an introduction to myself, an introduction in social settings, and so on and so forth. It seems that there is just so much to say, so much to catch up on before the flesh that comprises us first came into contact in that initial embrace. So, I guess I'll try to navigate this as best as I can in sharing a few thoughts and reflections.

Today marks the 1 1/2 year anniversary of my move to Detroit from Lawrence, KS, where I had attended school (University of Kansas) and lived for 6 years. In looking back on that experience, I would be remiss to dismiss it as inconsequential, because I feel that any environment or circumstance or choice presents opportunities that otherwise wouldn't have been available, but I also recognize that it was not difficult to part ways with. I had intended to move to the west coast, but intentions and serendipity is not always congruous. What ended up happening instead is that Detroit found me, literally, after I posted a general application on the AmeriCorps website looking for work.

I moved to Detroit in September 2008 after having been hired by an AmeriCorps program, and have since been truly reborn. Several months after having moved to Detroit, I fell into the den of one of the most revolutionary leaders and philosophers Detroit has seen over the past decade, began to cut my teeth as an "activist," and found myself on a new trajectory towards individual transformation. It is through these experiences that I found SEAC.

I use the word "serendipity" a lot to explain my circumstance and avoid the many sequences of my story. I do not feel that this in any way denigrates the importance of personal narrative, but I think it speaks so loudly to the process of our constant becoming as human beings. I don't perceive my life or my work as a linear process towards a utopic future, but rather a constant (re)cyclical process and understanding of self and community - a true dialectics. Moreover, I do not perceive my relationship and community building process as one that is dichotomized and presented in opposition to a larger hegemonic and oppressive structure, but one that is in constant dialogue and movement with two-sided transformation, from what is to what is possible. And in understanding this sense of place and space and self - that we are nobody by ourselves, but only become somebody in relation to many other somebodies - I believe I can truly contribute to the kind of change I would like to see in my lifetime.