It is an honor to get to witness history!

Last night, history was made when America elected Barack Obama as its first African-American President. I had the honor to be at the rally in Grant Park and it truly was the most incredible experience of my life. I'm still processing everything, but here are my initial thoughts.

Looking out across the crowd, it was so, incredibly beautiful to see African-Americans, Caucasians, Asian-Americans, Latinos, young, and old, families, and couples. Walking back to my apartment, I saw people of all colors and ages dancing together in the street, hugging each other, and simply enjoying the beautiful Chicago night. This truly is what America is all about and I felt like last night exemplified the best of what America has to offer.

I also feel like it is such a privilege to be working at a place like Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection at a historic time like this. Almost a year and a half ago, I started here as PIP fellow, and somewhat felt like an outsider. I didn't know what these children's lives were like or how I would be able to relate to them. But over the course of my time as Assistant Program Coordinator and Interim Program Coordinator I got to know the kids and I now feel like it's such an honor to be able to help them and kids in other programs out as well. I can't tell you what a joy it was when some of our older high schoolers and alumnae would come bouncing in telling me they had registered to vote or had voted. This election energized all of us, but I think for these kids, the fact that an African-American had a shot at being president was especially exciting. One of our kids even told me last summer that we was going to be the second African-American President after Barack Obama. That is so exciting and makes working here all the more worthwhile.

I can only hope that Barack Obama will unite this country together for at least the next four years as he did last night. I do know that he will continue to serve as an inspiration to all of us in making it to the highest office in this nation quite decidedly and uniting all of us, no matter what age we are or what the color is of our skin. We have worked hard in this country to achieve what has happened last night and we will continue to work hard so that every child of every color has the chance to change the world the way President-elect Obama did last night.