Day Six: Homeward Bound

On its face, today was simple: Clean the house, say goodbye to the AppalReD folks and drive to Virginia.

But as we piled into the cars and made our way back to UVa, going home was a bittersweet affair. From what we'd seen, what we'd worked on and who we'd met, I don't think any of us will be returning to the same place that we left one week ago. Most directly, our perspective of the practice of law is different now. Read Ben's post below ("Thursday Thoughts") for an illuminating example of how this will be affected.

The drive itself was practically a non-event. I'm so tired of car games that even when I thought of a sweet Dealbreaker question (if you have to ask, then you don't know), I didn't bring it up. All I remember was waking up in the back seat with drool on my arm, grabbing a week-old Thin Mint off the floor, and falling back asleep.

Once we got back to C-ville, the conclusion was mildly anti-climactic, since half of the first vehicle had already gone home to their own homes, with their own working toilets. Still, those of us left hugged, held back the tears and hurled insults at each other to numb the pain. Then... we went home. And that was the end.

I need to post some personal thank-yous: to John Rosenburg, for proving that it is possible to make a huge difference with a bit of gumption; to Branford Brown for his sweet hat, his patience at the wheel and for all the time he gave up to shepherd us around; to Kristie at the AppalReD office, who deserves a law degree for her knowledge of the system and a professorial position for teaching us students so much about how it works. Finally, huge props to Veronika Bath for leading the trip, to the PILA crowd for organizing it, and to the whole gang of ASB KY for making it an awesome, if somewhat bizarre, week in Eastern Kentucky.

[The sweet peeps of ASB KY '09 were, are, and forever will be: Veronika Bath, Dave Smith, Ben Cooper, Matt Reardon, Bob Falconi, Jessica Vormwald, Karla Soloria, John White, and the Susans: Susan (I) Kruth, Susan (II) Beall, and Susan (III) Edwards.]