Obama's Victory Captured Forever in Time

There are moments in life one never forgets.
The sites, sounds and even the smells surrounding the occasion – good or bad – can stay with you always.
There are events I have witnessed, mostly from afar, that will remain with me forever.
The earliest being the Space Shuttle Challenger. Home sick from second grade that day, sometimes I can still feel the pillows I was lying on in front of the TV.
There was the Berlin Wall, the L.A. riots, the Oklahoma City bombing, O.J.'s not-guilty verdict, 9/11.
Most are heavy recollections. Most are unfortunate. Then, there is Tuesday.
Ah, Tuesday.
Like most Americans, Election Day 2008 will place high on my list of days to keep.
Starting off the day in the voting booth, surrounded by strangers, yet feeling like you are all one.
The anticipation of the morning. "Did you vote?" "Did you vote?"
The afternoon, as the countdown started. Polls would be closing soon, which way would Pennsylvania go? Ohio?
Tuesday night, I was one of the hundreds of thousands of people in Grant Park when the contest came to an end.
We had been watching election results on giant screens – cheering with each positive result, booing at states like Kentucky, Louisiana.
At 10:01 p.m., CNN called it.
Barack Obama was our next president.
The first cheers were tinged with disbelief. No one could quite believe what they were hearing. But it was true. Wolf Blitzer relayed it again.
Barack Obama is our next president.
I will reflect on that moment, and the following hour, forever.
Strangers laughing, screaming, hugging one another.
Black. White. Hispanic. Young. Old. Gay. Straight. Male. Female. Foreigners.
Americans.
Everyone as one.
Each step I took, someone else would scream "Obama!"
People were running around, celebrating the change that had just come to our country. Shouts of "Yes we can" resounded as Obama made his speech.
Walking back to the train, on Michigan Avenue, was really when it all sunk in.
I joined those dancing in the streets to the sounds of policemen, cabbies, citizens honking their horns in glee.
A small band – tuba, drums and all – belted out "As the Saints Go Marching In" as it crossed the intersection.
And it hit me.
Hope.
That was all people needed. The feeling of knowing anything is possible.
And it is. This small-town Mississippi girl witnessed it Nov. 4, 2008, on the streets on Chicago.
It is a moment I will never forget.