Jury Duty?

I've had the most interesting experience this week. Since Sunday, I've been in Denver at a grant-writing workshop presented by The Grantsmanship Center and sponsored by the State Scholars Initiative. (Utah Scholars is the Utah version of the SSI program). All of the other states participating in the Initiative are here as well... bringing a total of 21 people from various states around the country, not to mention various ages, races, socio-economic levels, education levels, etc... you name it!
I am the youngest person here by far... probably young enough to be the daughter of at least 70% of the people here. We meet from 8:30 to 5:30 each day, and have all lunches and dinners together. It's nice to be put up in the Westin, and nice that the conference is right downstairs in the hotel. However, today (day 4/5), while looking around the table at lunch and observing the various and varied conversations happening, I realized what this feels like... Jury Duty! But not just the mundane jury duty, rather the kind where the group is sequestered and has only the company of one another for an extended period of time. Like "12 Angry Men" or "Runaway Jury" or something. It's so interesting to be learning about different people... from the 'haves' to the 'have nots', from old to young, fat to skinny, from a Louisiana-bred Southern Belle to a South-Dakotan "dontcha knoow, eh", and today I even sat by a Vegetarian! It's like a different life, where these people are the only world you know, and since it's been a few days, it kinda feels like an alternate universe where this becomes your reality and normal life is hard to remember.
I just have to sit back and laugh - adults are so diverse! I'm lucky to have friends and family who I know will develop as cool people. Haha - there really is something to be learned from everyone.