Attending Kettering University involves consistently adapting to new surroundings. Due to the Co-op program, many students live in two different locations for the year. For many students, the Co-Op program means living in a new place which is considerably far away from their family and friends. Some students not only move far away but also decide to live alone during the work term. This means a student is essentially alone in a new place with no idea of what to do with their free time.
It is easy to go home after a long day at work and sit inside your apartment. The problem with this mindset is that if you were to do this all the time, then you would never get to know this new city you now live in for half of the year. You would still have no friends in the area because you haven’t taken the time to meet new people or explore new things.
When I moved to Ypsilanti in October for my Co-op, that is the way I felt. I was in a new city, at a new job with nobody to see during the week and it became overwhelmingly lonely very quickly.
I googled things that made Ypsilanti a special town. The first thing to pop up was Side Tracks Bar and Grill. This establishment claimed to have the best burgers around. Later that week it was 8 P.M. on a Thursday and I decided to go to dinner by myself to see if the burgers were really that great. Ypsilanti never really has enough parking so I ended up parking in Cultivate Coffee and TapHouse’s grass, which I felt guilty about considering I wasn’t even going inside Cultivate. For the record, I didn’t even get a burger that night. I got the salmon, but as I sat outside alone on that cold October night, I realized I wanted to get more out of my three months in Ypsilanti than I was.
I felt compelled to visit Cultivate because I had used their grass as a parking spot. That weekend I decided to go to Cultivate Coffee and TapHouse to see what it was all about. The decision honestly changed my life. Cultivate had just opened its doors in September so they were also new to the area. Cultivate is a nonprofit organization and all the proceeds go hunger. The organization was started by a pastor and his wife, along with a close friend. The establishment sells coffee, tea, and beer. Over time, the options for drinks and food have expanded vastly. Although the drinks are very good, it is not the products that have had an impact on my life.
From the very first day I walked into Cultivate, the workers greeted me with a very warm smile. The atmosphere of Cultivate is something I am unable to find in any other coffee shop or establishment. It is warm, inviting, and very involved in the community. To them, it was never about selling the coffee, it was about contributing to the community. They have a blackboard with events for pretty much every day of the week. Whether it be a coloring night on a Monday or a Jazz band coming to play on Thursdays, or even math and physics tutoring on Saturdays. My point is, Cultivate is much more than establishment with drinks.
The Cultivate staff have become my family and inspired me to want to do more to help the world. I watched them grow for almost a year now and I feel honored to have watched them from the beginning. The loving staff has given me my feeling of a home. Before I met the people at Cultivate, Ypsilanti was just the city I worked in. Overtime Ypsi has become a place I consider my home.
Making friends became easy because I became so immersed in Cultivate's events they had each day of the week. They taught me to embrace the world with a smile, even if it is a world full of strangers in the beginning.
The main thing I want people to take from this article is to go out and get to know the new city you live in. You don’t have to be alone and stuck inside for three months of the work term. Home doesn’t have to be where you live, the sense of feeling at home can come from a coffee shop 8 minutes from where you stay. Go out, try new things, and introduce yourself to new people. These new things or new people may just change your life.
