Four Years Later

I remember where I was when President Obama gave his first inaugural speech.

It was during the three cold weeks in January 2009 when I temped at a textbook publishing company in the Chicago suburbs.  It was in the middle of two years of freelancing which feels, in retrospect, like two years of unemployment and arguably the most difficult two years of my adult life.  It was a cold January, the full time staff in the elementary science department where I temped was lovely (I'm still friendly with a number of them on facebook), but personally and professionally, it felt like rock bottom.

I remember I hadn't been really into Obama before the primaries, wasn't sure if I liked him or Hilary or whoever else our options were, but I knew I would support whoever was nominated at the convention.  I was in New York City on tour (sick in my hotel room) watching the results on TV when they announced that he won.  That was the year they didn't announce North Carolina's results for a few days, and I have a photo I took at Rockefeller Center the day after the election in which all the other states are painted either red or blue, but North Carolina is still white.

I was glad that he won, particularly because I was a resident of Chicago at the time, so I felt like we had something in common.  As a country, we had gotten ourselves into a pretty big mess, financially, and he seemed like the guy to lead us out of it.

So, that brings us to Tuesday, January 20, 2009.  It was the middle of the winter of my discontent, and here was a man who was the very embodiment of hope being sworn into the highest office in the land.  How could I not latch onto that?  At the company where I was temping, they had set up a projector and screen in one of the presentation rooms for employees to watch the inauguration, and I went.  I believed that this new era for the country would be positive, just as I had to believe that my own future could once again be bright.

I have always had a healthy respect for the office of president, but I had never before seen an inauguration because its noon start time always conflicted with school or work schedules, and I wasn't particularly interested before.  This time, I was invested, so as I said, I went.  I can't tell you now what the content is of the presidential oath, or what he said in his speech, but I know that it moved me.  There I was in the back of this room full of people I barely knew in a building I would only work in for 3 1/2 more days, feeling simultaneously like an island and part of something bigger than myself, listening to this man speak, wiping tears from my cheeks.

I just watched a youtube video of today's Inauguration Speech that was tweeted by @BarackObama, and I find myself, four years later, still proud of that man, hopeful of change, and respectful of the office of president and of the Declaration of Independence.