Some History on Everyone's Favorite Subject Right Now

It seems like we're all still coming down off our obamahigh. We're all smiley and full of hope. A few calls overseas to my pals always helps cement my perspective here, and I think the numbness/shock & awe is beginning to wear off and I'm starting to feel and process.

It really is no surprise that my generation is such a bunch of cynics. As I sat watching the election results with my pals, I was processing our patriotic history. Age 15: The first election I really remember and could process was stolen. Age 17: the 9/11 attacks take place while my senior class is outside taking our group photo on the football field. Age 18: George Bush declares mission accomplished on the battleship while I sit in my freshman year dorm room and throw crap at the screen. Age 21: I study political science during the Bush administration. enough said. Age 20: I pour all my frustration into my vote for John Kerry. I stay up until 5am waiting to hear election results. My home state of Ohio is blamed. My roommate breaks the dishes in our kitchen cupboard. The entire town feels like it's under a black cloud. We forget about school and eat more ice cream.

Age 21: I sign up for AmeriCorps VISTA. Age 23: I sign up for the Peace Corps. Age 24: I volunteer for the Obama campaign. I canvass in trailer parks and on dirt roads. I hear that Obama is ahead, even in Ohio, yet refuse to get my hopes up. I sit on my couch, surrounded by friends my same age, mostly fellow VISTA members, who for the first time feel patriotic as Obama is named president elect.

So I've wondered - how is it that I've poured so much energy into studying this country, plus devoted up to five years of my life to serving it, yet still had so little hope in it. Looking back, it makes a heck of a lot of sense. I guess we all kept pressing on because we've learned and seen what people can do when they join together, even in the crazy time of this last decade. Whether it's fancy intellectual movements or good old community organizing here in Appalachia, I've seen it work and inspire and move. And to actually see it playing out on the national scale - in front of all the flashy lights and cameras, on the CNN ticker, on the cover of Time magazine - is just surreal.