Hillbilly Elegy

aspiring civil rights attorney born a few
minutes from Yale’s campus, and an
extremely progressive lesbian with a
fantastic sense of humor, among others—
but we became excellent friends.
That first year at Yale was
overwhelming, but in a good way. I’d
always been an American history buff,
and some of the buildings on campus
predated the Revolutionary War.
Sometimes I’d walk around campus
searching for the placards that identified
the ages of buildings. The buildings
themselves were breathtakingly beautiful
—towering masterpieces of neo-Gothic
architecture. Inside, intricate stone
carvings and wood trim gave the law