The EthioRussian

This is a composition of the thoughts and feelings that went through my head on Nov. 4th and Nov. 5th 2008. I was too excited to login on here and write about all this, but it had to occur at some point, so here it is:

Going to sleep on the eve of November 4th was kind of hard, I felt really anxious, uneasy, even if I cannot participate in the elections, the importance of the upcoming day gloomed upon me hard. The start of the new day was really quiet, until I passed an elementary school with a huge voting line, on my way to work. The whole day at work was relatively quiet, nobody mentioned anything about either candidate, or the election in general. Some people were faithfully sporting the “I voted” stickers, but that’s about it.

I rushed home after work and sat there in front of my TV, waiting for every poll to close. We’ve been through surprises in this country’s elections before, so there was no way in hell that I was gonna believe all the projected polls, early of the final results… all of a sudden they say Pennsylvania is for Obama, and people start talking about how McCain is done… still I sat there w/my Pilsner in my hand, saying to myself what if someone asks for a recount in Pennsylvania? people haven’t really started talking about the notorious voting machine errors that occur during every election, etc… I was just sitting there saying I’m not jumping w/joy until I see the proof right in front of me… and sure enough, there it was, about an hour later, a golden background image appears on CNN, with Obama’s big smile photo on it, and the words “Barack Obama – 44th President of the United States of America.”

My mom was crying w/joy, I was sitting there mesmerized, every sound around me became very subtle… people blowin up my phone, nothing caught my attention, I just sat there basking in the moment. I can honestly tell you that as a 1st generation immigrant, if there ever was a moment in my life where I felt so happy, so ecstatic, so proud about being in the United States of America, that moment was it. That moment even surpassed the feelings I had the day we first set foot on this land. I was sitting there with joy, asking myself why the hell am I here at home? why am I not out there running to the White House, to celebrate with the rest of the people. I was so close to emailing my boss and letting him know that I was not going to come to work the next day.

Again, going to sleep that night was hard, but nature takes its course, and when I woke up in the morning I immediately felt the power of this new day, this new era of socio-economic change. Amazingly, everyone at my job was extremely quiet that day, almost as if these people where showing their true colors. Nobody seemed to be happy in my building… I was sitting in my office with a huge smile on my face, I felt like I was the only one.. I was literally jumping with joy in my office when I looked through the slideshows of people celebrating all over the world… but people at my job were still quiet, it just didn’t seem right, I couldn’t wait to leave that place, and surround myself with people that are as happy and excited as I was.

Reflecting on the future, Mr. Obama has sold several dreams to millions of people. These people (including me) have to leave room for errors and disappointments over the course of his presidency. We cannot expect Barak to move into the White House and start walking on water at the Reflecting Pool nearby. After all, he is human, he will have many obstacles ahead of him, and we should expect these obstacles to disappoint us as well, because he cannot be expected to solve every issue.

I’d like to thank everyone that participated in getting that man into the White House. I truly wish I was blessed enough to take part in such a monumental blip of history’s tapestry. We have a tough road ahead of us, let’s just stick to the script, and work towards making each day a little better than the one before it.