He distinctly remembers the historical day with a blend of happiness intertwined with the scent of a honey throat lozenge. As a young bull (12-year-old) is home from school sick, he watches a man with features like his become the 44th President of the United States. Though ill, the boy with the peanut shaped head was filled with exuberance (lit). He was living like it was a holiday and would continue to be on one for the next 8 years all because his president was indeed black.
I was that young bull among many others who witnessed the presidency of THE Barack Hussein Obama. Years from now we will say that we were observers of the first modern president, and there had never a leader like Barack Obama, the man with the same hair texture as me. It literally took 232 years (1776-2008) to elect a leader who was physically and idealistically different from those who held this prestigious title as commander-in-chief. Mr. Obama ushered in a new wave of leadership accompanied by compelling rhetoric and charismatic poise.
He was the man many children (especially those of color) aspired to be. His title as the leader of this nation has been what it was always deemed to signify, but it was the President’s moral code, honesty, compassion, and confidence many of us were truly aiming to facilitate within ourselves. We essentially grew up with President Obama thus unknowingly becoming inheritors of his truly hopeful and dynamic philosophy.
“For blacks and other minorities, it means tying our own struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face—the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender American, and also the middle-aged white man who from the outside may seem like he's got all the advantages, but who's seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change”
This quote comes from the President’s farewell address in which he does what he does best which is uniting the nation. Mr. Obama sought to unify individuals through commonalities that all creeds and shades faced. Being human is the core of this quote, and as humans, the challenges we face are all one in the same when need to be met. Almost everything he voice was like that of a lesson from a father or mother, in a way making many of us his daughters and sons. We all saw a side of the President that makes him one of the people. He knows who he is, has vast tales to tell, and derives from the same household where you were told and knew you had to be “twice as good”.
But ultimately, President Obama believes and holds the interest in the next generation. Having young daughters of his own and being a younger leader himself illustrates his love for youth, and what they will inevitably become as inheritors of hope and change. Mr. Barack Hussein Obama’s presidency has been and will forevermore be commemorated as nothing more than lit. Regardless of all the trials and tribulations, these past 8 years have held for the President, he overcame and became the pillar of leadership that will sink into the roots of this nation that will eventually germinate in all future young Americans.
Thank you, Mr. President
