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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1993)
K \ I ll\ SI I IN \l I K City summer teaches life lessons As my mom parked the car, 1 looked around and couldn’t believe I was planning to spend the next couple of months in this house in this city. But I decided that it could be cool. I'm 21.1 can do this, I thought. Then mom and I drove to the gro cery store, following directions mom a guy who lived across the street. About a block from “home,” I noticed a car full of suspicious-looking men following us. We knew we were conspicuous. Two women in an Oldsmobile with Nebraska license plates were quite obvious in mar-downtown Detroit. Ideally, mom said in a typically motherly fashion, we should pull into a police station. But since we’d been in Detroit all of two hours, that was not possible. We decided to just go to the grocery store. I changed lanes; they changed lanes. Mom locked the doors. I [wiled into the parking lot; they pulled in. I parked; they parked next to us. Mom and I pretended to have the most serious conversation ever while the men got out of the car and walked into the store very calmly and very normally. I don’t think they even saw us—the two parano id Nebraska wom en sitting in the car next to them. What a way to start my summer excursion in the Motor City. But that experience taught me one of the hun dreds of things I learned this summer. I learned the fine line between paranoia and caution. Mom and 1 may nave been a bit paranoid going to the store, but in Detroit, a little paranoia is good for bodily safety. My first night, the overnight low dropped to 40 degrees. The nouse I stayed in had a concrete floor and brick exterior. That night was cold literally and figuratively. My spirits were as low as the temperature. —While trying to fall asleep that r I learned the fine line between paranoia and caution. Mom and I may have been a bit paranoid going to the store, but in Detroit, a little paranoia is good for bodi ly safety. night, I planned otter ways I could spend my summer. 1 could fake a horrible illness in the family and say I had to go home. I could tell my professors that The Detroit News for got they hired me and I had to work as a waitress or something instead. I had to do something. I didn’t care where I’d have to work, but that night I was sure I could never handle what I had gotten myself into. I’d walk beans lor the summer if I had to—as . long as I could go home. , I made a countdown calendar. I only had 65 more days in Motown. Only about 40 more days — I should say nights—ofwork. Then I could go home. I missed a lot of the simple things while I was gone. I missed a lot of people. 1 even missed the com. But I also apparently missed a lot of rain. At least I can say the weather where I spent my summer was beau tiful. Not too wet, not too hot. Just about right. After a while, I realized the beauty of my predicament. I was spending my summer learning. I was spending my summer in a place where many people will never go. Not that Detroit is where many people want to vacation. But it was a great place to leam about the news business. I was there during most of the trials of three policemen charged with beat ing and murdering a black man, Mal ice Green. I worked many of the nights around the time Baby Jessica was forced to leave the DeBoers, who live in Ann Arbor, about 45 minutes from Detroit. Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisted with another suicide the night before Ileft. I also met a lot of friendly, fun people. I actually had a good time. The first night I was there, 1 was sure that was impossible. I planned to spend the next 60 days reading and sleeping a lot and figured my best friends would become Montel Williams and Phil Donahue. Looking back, I know I’ll never regret spending a summer in Detroit. I may have missed a rainy summer in Nebraska, but there will probably be more. I may never go back to Detroit. I may never have the chance, so I had to take that chance while it was there. I learned more than I ever could say. I learned about newspapers and life. And big cities. I saw firsthand some of the major problems this coun try needs to address. But those stretches pf cornfields and all those typical Nebraska things were actually welcome sights when I came home the first week of August. One of the most important things I learned this summer was that while learning and traveling are wonderful, there really is no place like home. Sometimes you have to get away from something to appreciate it. Strinwr Is a scalar acws-cdtortal najor aad a Dally Nabraskaa optataa pact editor. THE FIRSTIER SURVIVAL KIT... YOU CAST MAKE IT THROUGH SCHOOL WITHOUT W REGULAR CHECKING... 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