So...Obama won and became the 44'th President of The United States

Just in case you've been living under a rock for the past couple of months, Obama won the race for the presidency (against McCain) and became the 44'th President of The United States. It is hard to describe my elation for this outcome, but let me try. People have already said enough about what this means for the country, it's people and the rest of the world, so I won't repeat all that. I will just talk about my feelings.

I went over to my cousin's place on the night of the 4'th (the results didn't start coming in until 5am on the 5'th our time) 'cause I don't have a TV. I was planning on staying up all night watching CNN but ended up sleeping for 4 hours until 4am in the morning. That is when I started following the news, and as CNN started projecting states for Obama, my heart started jumping beats. I don't remember the correct sequence of events, but as soon as Pennsylvania was called for Obama followed (or proceeded) by Iowa and Ohio, everybody knew that was it. But I still didn't celebrate, lest I jinx it. It was only after California and Oregon were called for Obama (at about 8am my time) did I finally shake the hands of and hug my cousin and sister-in-law. It was momentous, it was exhilerating, it was unique and yes, it was emotional.

The first 3 make sense, but let me explain the last adjective I used above. When I say emotional, I meant I wanted to cry. Tears did well up, but I pushed them back - I didn't want to look like a pussy in front of the audience (my cousin and my sis-in-law :)). There were plenty of reasons for this - first black man to be president, first truly liberal guy to get there, finally a democrat back in that seat, the knowledge that Palin would not come within 100 ft. of the oval office etc. etc. But the main reason for my response was something else - I wanted to cry 'cause this was the first time I picked a winner. All the other times, my choices for President lost. This time, he won. And it's no small thing - I was supporting Obama from the start - from the day he stood up outside the state house in Illinois to announce his candidacy (and actually from before that). It was this feeling of pride, this feeling of accomplishment, this fulfillment of a dream that got to me. There was an amazing soliloquy delievered by Ray Romano in the show Everybody Loves Raymond, and while I don't remember the exact words, it's crux was that when one of your dreams, a dream that you thought was so distant to border on the unreal, comes true, you start taking your other dreams more seriously. That's what happened for me. When it all started, I was pretty sure I was supporting a loser - after all he was Black, with relatively less experience, a well educated and articulate man, etc. All ingredients for a great President, but all qualities that would work against him. Him winning meant nothing is too hard to achieve, too distant a dream when you go after it with a plan and a focuses approach, and work really hard to achieve the goal you set out for. 

What remains to be seen now is what he makes of it. He needs to do good, else his whole aura that he can actually change things, and bring about a better future will fade. He has a nice team to help him, and that added to the fact that he himself is a pretty smart guy leads me to be optimistic about his chances. Let's hope I'm right here too.