barack the vote

to anybody reading this, or still reading this, or reading it for the first time (let's be honest, was anybody EVER reading this?):

today is the day.

i started getting choked up getting ready for work, this morning. to graduate college, i had to write a thesis about a social movement in the state i grew up in, and i chose to write about a black student movement that happened 13 years before i was born at the school i was attending. the students only wanted more representation in the student body, faculty, staff and administration. they fought for change, and in 37 years, the black student population at this particular university went from less than 1% to 13%, 10% higher than the population in the entire state.

37 years later, i'm going to go to the polls and vote for a black man to be president.

america can be annoying, and america can be embarrassing. i will absolutely be the first to admit it. but 50 years ago, barack obama would have had to walk in a separate door to enter a building. and he would have had to drink at a different water fountain. he would have had to sit at the back of the bus--not because the cool kids were back there (which is why i always wanted to sit at the back of the bus), but because that was where people who looked like him had to sit. and because of his skin color, 50 years ago, in the united states of america, barack obama would have had a helluva time even registering to vote.

and today, we will find out if he is going to be our next president.

what an amazing place.

this is going to be big, i hope i don't have to tell you.

today, we make history. in the land of the free, and the home of the brave.