Inaugeration Day 2009

On this most historical day in American history, it seems appropriate to remember Chicago's greatest moment in recent history. On Election Night 2008 I was one of the lucky Chicagoans at the Obama Rally in Grant Park. My story may not be extraordinary for anyone else, but for me, it was the most incredible night of my life. The enormity of this once-in-a-lifetime night compelled me to write about it. Below is the email I sent to family and friends the day after the election.

The night started at three in the afternoon, as I met up with seven other friends at the entrance to Grant Park. Through a series of corrals and checkpoints over the next four hours, we chatted with strangers, speculated outcomes, and joked around. As we neared the final check-point at seven thirty, we could hear Wolf Blitzer faintly in the distance, and murmurs and then shouts ran through the crowd. "Virginia?? He won Virginia??? What? Oh. Pennsylvania. That's old news." At seven thirty, my friends and I entered the main event, already packed with thousands of people. The stadium lights, the jumbo-tron, the concentration of news cameras, the skyline, that stage off in the distance -- it was overwhelming. With little thought, we made our way into the crowd where we stayed for the next four hours.

The next four hours felt like the biggest, coolest party in the world. CNN was broadcast from the jumbo-tron and we had a perfect view. We tapped our feet, tried to get on TV, and watched the election unfold before us. The first group of states Obama won were no surprise, but drew loud cheers anyway, a warm-up for later. Even Elizabeth Dole's defeat drew woot-woots and fist-pumps. As CNN evenly projected the states, people speculated the chance of a McCain upset. The optimists scoffed, "There's no way Obama can’t win. How can you think that?" To which my friend Rob aptly replied, "I'm a liberal and a Cubs fan. I know what disappointment feels like."

The first memorable moment was victory in Ohio. The crowd bobbed up and down in celebration, and we all patted my friend Laura on the back for voting absentee in Ohio. Then we got updates for other states, their chronology a blur. Obama was leading in Florida. Obama won Wisconsin, Michigan, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota. Then, on CNN John King hypothetically gave McCain every other state up for grabs. That's when we knew. Rob, Laura, Christine, Jake, Carolyn, Jim, and Justin and I all looked at each other, a look I have never seen in my life. It was first a question and then an answer. He's really going to win.

Even though we knew, nothing prepared us for what was next. Again, just chit-chatting in anticipation, we stopped when CNN said a major announcement was on the way. We stared at the screen in anticipation. They were going to call California. Washington maybe. Hawaii too. And then "CNN Breaking News" flashed on the screen.

The crowd exploded before I saw the full sentence on screen: "Barack Obama elected President."

For as long as I live, I will never, ever forget that moment. I could barely form thoughts, for these unfamiliar feelings of success and elation were bursting to get out. We looked at each other with eyes bulging and mouths open. A million thoughts flooded my brain in a second: Omgomgomg. President Barack Obama. White House. Bye bye Bush. African American. Leader of the Free World. Kenya. Hawaii. Irag. Afganistan. Indonesia. North Korea. Chicago. Grant Park. This is History.

We jumped and jumped and jumped. Screamed at the top of our lungs. Clapped until our hands were raw. We hugged and high-fived. Quite literally smack-dab in the middle of two hundred thousand people, we could hardly take it all in. It was like time stopping, and speeding ahead at the same time. It was like winning the Super Bowl, graduating from college, returning home from a long absence, New Year's Eve, and hearing my favorite song all at once. It's hard to imagine feeling that ever again.

Maybe it seems a bit much, but for my friends and me, this was all so rare. Victory. Joy. Possibility. For the liberals of my generation, the only major history we've witnessed were school shootings and 9/11. The last time our "team" won an election was 1996, when we were just twelve. For two-thirds of our lives, the other side has won. For two-thirds of our lives, we had to remind ourselves, "Maybe next time." For one-third of our lives, it felt odd to chant "USA" without sarcasm. For one-third of our lives, the American flag represented "Maverick diplomacy" and "fear of the foreigner." We came of age in a country lead by a man we hate, an administration we fear, and an ideology we reject. But finally, FINALLY, our pessimism gave way to optimism.

At the rally, I chanted "USA! USA! USA!" at the top of my lungs with every other American there. We put our hands on our hearts during the Pledge of Allegiance. We joined in the National Anthem, singing without reservation. We were Democrats, we were liberals, this was our America too and we wanted the whole world to know it.

The rest of the night can only be described as the purest form of rejoicing I've ever seen. I grinned the whole time, receiving jubilant texts and voicemails from friends and family. All that was left was Obama himself.

When he finally did arrive, we cheered and stood on our tip-toes hoping for a glance. Because we stood on flat ground, we had no view of him except on the jumbo-tron. I never actually saw him. But I heard him, and felt that giant crowd respond to the memorable speech, and even noticed the Secret Service helicopters above. The crowd was relatively quiet, listening, some too emotional to cheer. I felt proud and was incredibly grateful to have been there.

The next morning, I woke to my alarm. I shook my head, rubbed my eyes, thought ‘Is it five already?’ and then stopped when I remembered the night before. Holy cow, ohmygod, Barack Obama is President of the United States.

It was a beautiful day to wake up in America.