Reactions

There are a lot of reactions I've been having in the past 36 hours, most of them elated and ecstatic (except where California is concerned. I'm just... disappointed. More than anything else. I'm just disappointed), some confused - Ted Stevens? Really? Him? - but really it's a sense of relief. I mean, finally. After so many years, my entire adult life - except for 2006, which was a huge victory, but tempered by two more years of W - has been filled with political disappointment after political disappointment. You have to go back to 1996 for some good news.

I feel so relieved that this victory, one I've been gunning for for months (in truth, I can't really admit to hopping onto the Obama bandwagon until the night of the Iowa caucus, mainly due to his speech; until his victory speech Tuesday, one of the best political speeches I've ever heard). I'm relieved that this is something momentous, and incredible significant, not just because of the racial element, not just because of the annihilation of decades of conservative rule over Washington, but because I feel like this is the moment when my generation - those who came of age with Iraq - have come into our own. We have said, "No! We don't want our world to be like this!" and then we've fucking done something about it.

I, myself, haven't actually done much - it's hard to campaign from 10,000 miles away. But I donated and phone banked in the primaries, and endlessly sported my fabulous Obama shirt this last week. But I still feel ownership over this moment, over this transition, over the next 4 (8!) years. I feel real ownership, for the first time in 8 years, over my country, over my Americanship. And I'm really excited about that and what great change the future holds.