Khan 1

Shahrin Khan
Andrew Cavin
HON 1000
27 November 2016
Reflective Essay
Taking the Honors 1000 course allowed me to create a whole new awareness for the
space in which I live. Detroit has always played an enormous role in raising me. From the Desi
restaurants with fragrant meals that you can smell around the corner, to the annual visits I had to
the Science Center with my friends who were too young to think of statements other than This
is so cool!, and the endless amounts of art I find myself lost in. This city has always been in a
state of rebuilding and growth. There is never a moment where we can say Enough. In taking
this course, I have come to realize how the citys urban form and its strong connection to the past
plays such a significant role for Detroit. Who we are, where we are going, and what we should
do is all answered by reflecting on what we can see in this city.
Every assignment for the class contributed to this journey of learning about this classic,
Detroit. The first essay began answering the question of Who are we? I have always known
that this city became a home away from all of the homes of immigrants from other countries.
Migrants moved in waves to Detroit, and found themselves drowning in opportunity and
communities of people like them. By doing this initial essay by researching Polish Americans, I
found how early Detroit was able to provide this home for immigrants. Attending the lectures
showed me that Henry Fords company was set on not making immigrants alienated; rather, they
had ceremonies with representations of them becoming Americans.

Khan 2
The second essay focused on answering Where are we going? For this assignment, I
chose to examine the Heidelberg Project, in which its creator Tyree Guyton attempts to change
his neighborhoods reputation of drugs and crime. This city is notoriously known for its art,
whether this art is presented in quiet galleries or through big walls behind buildings. Guyton uses
his art to keep this image alive. Where we are going is a place of creativity and imagination. A
place where we can abandon our past that may limit us and create our own history: the value of
the designer individual. This idea is also taught in this class during the trip to the Redford
Theatre where Charlie Chaplins Modern Times was screened. Chaplin shows his character as
breaking the shackles of what the city expects of him as a worker, and pursues his own future.
HON 1000 has only grown the values within myself. The sentiment of how Detroit is a
city full of danger and crime has always been something I have refuted. What the citys residents
have gone through (e.g. discrimination, bankruptcy, poverty), has created a stronger, persevering
city that provides for its people. I know that in my future, I, along with my fellow classmates,
will work towards changing the stereotype of Detroit.