Megan Rochlitz - New City, Who Dis?

​It’s a bit cliché to start a blog post with “I don’t know quite what to write about” and proceed to write a blog post but, well, here we are. I’m not quite at the point where I have deep reflections about my first year of service as I go into the second. You can’t quite force reflection and sometimes the ways you’ve grown or changed aren’t always immediately apparent.
 
Just over a month ago, I was serving with Mackinac Economic Alliance in St. Ignace the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Not too far into the UP mind you, St. Ignace is the first town after you cross the Mackinac Bridge. Now I’m serving with Friends In Deed (FID) in Ypsilanti. The town is bigger (WAY bigger if you fold Ann Arbor in), the organization has a different focus, and I don’t have my cat with me (she’s back with my parents). It’s quite a bit to process and get acclimated to while we’re still working through a global pandemic and everything an election year brings.
 
Right now, I’m looking forward to the VISTA Dungeons & Dragons group, meeting people in this new town, and building relationships with FID staff and clients. I’m also physically closer to my family and hopefully can be more present in my nieces’ and nephews’ lives than I was able to be when I was up north. There’s no way of knowing what all will come my way this year, but I’m interested in who I will be on the other side.
 
The high point of my first few weeks at FID was the rappelling fundraiser event. Below you'll see a picture of me hanging out on a hotel roof at FID’s fundraising event. Folks who wanted to rappel committed to raising at least $1000 for FID and its programs. Donations were collected via crowdfunding. They got to rappel down a 14-story hotel in downtown Ann Arbor, supported by an organization that facilitates fundraising-rappelling events across the country. I was in charge of capturing rooftop video for the event livestream. We had great weather and I had a great view of Ann Arbor! An interesting way to kick off my second year of service to be sure.

Megan Rochlitz on a rooftop in Ann Arbor for Friend In Deed's rappelling fundraising event.