Detroit

This weekend, I went on a road trip to Detroit with my friend Adam.  He's trying to see all of the Major League baseball stadiums in the country, so we got tickets for the Tigers game on Saturday.  We left Saturday morning and drove back on Sunday.  It takes 4 hours from Akron, so we were literally in Detroit for less than 24 hours.  We stayed with Erin, a girl from our Clarion cross country team, who lives in Rochester Hills now and runs professionally with Brooks.  I hadn't seen her since college, so it was nice catching up.  We all went to the game at 4 o'clock and then went out to a sports bar afterward around Greektown.

If you haven't been to Detroit post-recession, I recommend it for an eye-opener.  I had seen pictures of the abandoned buildings there, but to actually see in person city block after city block of boarded up houses with caved in roofs, broken windows and grass up to your waist really made me realize how hard this city was hit.  The city looked far more depressed than anything I have seen in Warren, Youngstown, Cleveland or Akron.  Graffiti was everywhere, entire office buildings had every single window busted out and apartment complex towers had been abandoned.  It's hard to believe one of America's great cities is now just falling apart.  It's also scary to think that cities in Ohio and across the U.S. may not be far from following Detroit if things don't improve soon.

A lot of times it's easy to take the simple things for granted such as a roof over your head or a job.  Seeing the depression that has taken over much of Detroit reminded me to be thankful for those small things in my life.