After waking up at the unholy time of 5:00 in the morning and almost losing my wallet at the airport before being strip-searched by overzealous airport security agents, I probably would have lost it during the flight home when a smelly 30-something year old fell asleep dangerously close to my head in the seat next to me. Under normal circumstances, this would have provoked me to passive aggressively hum loudly to the Britney Spears playing on my iPod until he woke up and switched sides. But after being part of a crowd full of blacks and whites and adults and toddlers all celebrating a milestone in our nation’s history we had all worked hard to achieve, I couldn’t find it in my heart to torture my seat-mate. Instead I rolled up my Cosmo and gently poked his head with it until he grunted and shifted to the other side. Smiling, I closed my eyes and leaned back. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. Or about how I was right there when it happened.
On November 4th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama made history when he was elected as America’s first black president. Across the country, his supporters celebrated in living rooms, community centers, and college campuses. But what if you were actually there in his hometown of Chicago on that fateful night? What if you couldn’t spy a crying Sarah Palin-ite sitting in the corner anywhere, and the sea of people surrounding you were elated Obama fans? This was my experience on election night. On a whim, Ryan and I flew to Chicago to go see Barack Obama speak on election night. We were practically jumping up and down in our seats when the plane took off for Chicago. After we landed, we hailed a taxi and drove to Ryan’s brother’s apartment and later I left for my sister Brooke’s apartment, which was coincidentally only a few blocks away. Seeing Brooke and her husband Blake was great (except for seeing their cat Ali, who has a strange and specific hatred of me), but I couldn’t wait for the next day when we would go down to Hyde Park to see Barack Obama.
The next day, because my sister was off taking classes at Northwestern (she attends Law school there), Blake decided to take me on a little tour of Chicago. As I had slept in until the late hour of 12:30, there weren’t many options left. Stores and attractions were closing early because of the election that night. We wandered over to the Shedd Aquarium, but even then the election was heavy on our minds. Signs of the impending event were everywhere: I even got interviewed on camera by a German television reporter asking me about my shirt (emblazoned with “I got a crush on Obama”). We finally got to the aquarium, but after walking around for five minutes a stern heavyset woman in her mid 50’s waddled over to inform us that the aquarium was closing due to the election. Blake and I exchanged looks and walked out of the aquarium to regroup.
That night, Blake and I took the metro to Northwestern where my sister was still in class. We loitered around the lobby of the law school building, where students were slowly filtering in wearing politically themed T-shirts and clutching mini American flags to wave around at the appropriate time. Finally, my sister finished her class and we all took the metro to the closest area possible to Hyde Park. Nothing could have prepared us for the scene outside the station. Millions of people were moving in a steady stream towards the Park. The streets were closed, and it seemed as if all of Chicago had come out for the event that night. Brooke, Blake and I were practically skipping there, and along the way we saw vendors selling shirts, small children getting piggy-back rides from their parents, and outrageously dressed men and women blowing whistles and wearing party hats.
We finally got to the Park, and because we didn’t have tickets we found ourselves outside the main venue along with millions of other people. Surprisingly, everyone was fairly calm (yet excited) and there were no fights or arguments even though we were in such a large group. Everyone seemed to be united for a common goal and shared ideal. There were several huge screens set up, tuned to CNN, which reported on the incoming results from the election. Every time Obama won a state, the crowd erupted in a collective cheer. When CNN made the announcement that they were predicting Obama as the winner of the 2008 election, the crowd went absolutely wild. I don’t know if I will ever experience such a feeling of collective joy as I did that night. Strangers embraced, people were crying out of sheer joy, and everyone came together in what felt like one big group hug. The speech Obama made after that was, of course, inspiring and exciting, but nothing will ever compare to that moment in the crowd when his election changed history.