495.3 miles later, I’ve finished the Es!
3024.8 Miles Total
Since September 2023 (whenever it’s warm) I’ve been riding my e-bike successively to and through every street in Ann Arbor in alphabetical order. Yesterday, I finished the E Streets. Whenever I finish a letter, I write a reflection on place. Today, I’d like to talk about my summer as a whole. 
This summer, three of my closest local friends went on sabbatical. I live in a university town, but none of these friends are professors. Each of them had unique circumstances, but they each took a substantial amount of time to get outside of their typical rhythms and travel. I admired them for doing this.
I wasn’t doing this in any official way, either formally or informally, but I thought, “How can my summer have the same kind of vibe?”
“How about… a… staybatical?”
I didn’t set out to stay exclusively in town, though mostly I did. I only made one larger trip. I’ve barely done any day trips either — something that is pretty standard for me in the summer.
Though minimal travel wasn’t my intent, I started calling this ‘my staybatical’ right at the very beginning. It was a framework. How might I relate to this place differently one summer later if I treated this as a special, set-aside time? How could I make space for memories right here?
It turns out, I could do that daily. I’ve kept a running list on my phone since Memorial Day, the informal beginning of summer. Today is Day 92. Every day, I’ve sought to do something memorable. It doesn’t have to be monumental — just something that might lead to me thinking or saying,
“Remember that time when we…?”
Or
“Remember that time when I…?”
Something that will stay with me.
My list is filled with things like,
“Dinner at ____ with ____”
“Walk and photography at ____ Metropark.”
There’s also,
“Mein erstes Mal am Stammtisch” (i.e. the time that I went to a German-speaking Meetup and discovered I’m an extrovert auf Deutsch, too.)
There were so many community events. (Thank you, Ann Arbor Observer Magazine). There were so many outdoor spaces. There were times with neighbors, including the literal ones on my actual street, and the ones that surround my life in this town where I live.
And here is where it led me:
I’m not trying to be overly schmaltzy, but I absolutely re-fell in love with Ann Arbor this summer.
It’s not that I had fallen out of love, though I confess, I have truly gotten to a place where I am over winter. But sometimes you need an experience and feeling of novelty. Sometimes you need to know that if you let a place hold you, it starts to form you.
And this staybatical gave me a framework and an experience of knowing I can shape and be shaped by seasons. Hopefully, this means I can be intentional in winter in unique ways rather than letting it be a blasé, throwaway, cabin fever time.
I stayed right here, and I’m better for it.
Smuggling Grace 