Behind and Before

So here we are at the end of 2008. This has been a terrible year for a lot of people, and yet it's been the best year of my life so far. This is the year in which I accomplished, almost by accident, the goal I set when I first decided to go to law school.

I decided on U.Va. because I thought moving back to Charlottesville could help me reconnect with myself—the person I was in high school and at the beginning of college, who didn't let her fear of the unknown or her desire to please other people keep her from doing what she really wanted to do. I had lost track of that person, and I hoped I could find her again.

This is the year in which I realized that playing it safe made me bored (at best) and miserable (at worst), and so I finally quit doing it. And I finally feel like I'm moving forward in my life, with direction, and honesty, and hope.