It is 11:41PM and Raashmi and Julie are both sleeping, so I am in my bed writing this blog.

We woke up super early this morning, but of course for a good cause and made our way to the Family Justice Center. This center was a place where victims could go if they needed help in escaping. We noticed how "homey" the center looked, meaning it was really meant to make domestic violence victims and their families feel comfortable. When we sat down in the conference room, we were introduced to a man who was a leader of the domestic violence unit. He basically broke down and summarized everything we had learned in the time we had been in Knoxville. For example, he listed the warning signs of a "soon to be abuser," as well as the time when domestic violence was the greatest. From a student's perspective, I really did feel like I was in a classroom. Everything was broken down in statistics and concrete definitions. It was nice to understand everything from an objective, more pragmatic point of view, rather than an emotional and psychological standpoint. This was more of a calm day, but it fit the schedule of the trip. Meaning, we had so many intense days during our time here. This day just summarized everything we had learned and made perfect sense to us at the end.

Our trip was about domestic violence -- learning about the issue and becoming more aware of how it affects peoples' lives everyday. We all hear about it on the news, from the hush whispers in the local community, or from a friend who tells you that rumor or her secret. Many people maintain a distance from the issue, because they fear of what they will find. They fear that they can't handle the pain and the complexity of what this issue could really unfold. But, on this trip we dared to go that distance and really learn about this issue. And we have. The reality is, it could happen to any of us, we just got lucky. Any one of us is no different from that kid down the street with the "messed up parents" or one of the women we met during the week. We got lucky and we have to remember that it could've been one of us. I think all of us have realized so much about ourselves these past 9 days, as well as our new found friends on the trip. We are now empowered to continue to do good and eliminate the ignorance behind the issue of domestic violence.