Change
I cast my vote on October 20th 2008. I waited eagerly for November 4th to see if my fellow brethren wanted a change in this country.
And tonight I got my answer.
As I stood at my school's election night party and heard the screams and shouts when Obama was announced the winner by all of the news stations, I got chills and I cried.
No, my one little blue vote in the big red state of Texas may not have made a huge impact, but I got to see how many "little blue votes" there were across the country. How many people out there wanted change. How many Americans came together and woke up and realized what we, as a country, need to do to.
I cried several times tonight and for many reasons. The past 8 years have sucked. This is my 3rd Presidential election and I've learned to be cautious. I've seen previous elections stolen from those who won them, and I have lived under the rule of a war mongering battleaxe of a President who showed he didn't give two hoots about us as a country, as a people. He's sent my friends to go fight in a senseless, blood spilling war in a fight for imaginary weapons and killing those who have not wronged us. I've seen my gas prices triple and I've seen my family, who once had a little money to throw around, have to tighten their belts and give up things they enjoyed to make ends meet. I've experienced the more prosperous times under Clinton and I can compare them, drastically, to the current times. I've seen this country go from being idolized to being a disgrace in international eyes.
One of the many other reasons why I cried was because in all of my time on this Earth, I never once thought I would see the day when a brown skinned man, with his brown skinned wife, and two little brown skinned girls would be our First Family. Never once had I EVER thought I would see a man that looked like me running this country. I can't make you understand what that feels like. I can't put it into words and I'm not going to try. Either you get it or you don't. But I now will have the privilege of, one day, having little black children of my own and telling them that when they grow up, they can be anything they want to be, including the leader of the most powerful country on this planet.
I will say it, and I will mean it.
Yes, we can. And yes, we did.