When Barack Obama decided to run for president back in 2008, I was a 17-year-old high school senior with a blossoming future ahead of me. I was also a 17-year-old high school senior who had absolutely zero interest in politics of any kind. I didn’t care about social justice, I didn’t care about equality, or gay marriage, or abortion. I didn’t think any of it actually mattered to me because I had grown up in a house with Christians who were conservative but voted Democrat. At that time I had the mindset that my parents’ views on politics were right, even though I was itching to give my own opinions. At that time, I was too scared to differ from what was the norm in my family. Still, when President Obama ran for office, I found myself glued to CNN, watching various speeches he gave, presidential debates, trying to stay up-to-date with current issues. If I can credit President Obama for anything, it was helping me find my voice when it came down to political and social issues.

Here we are, eight years later, about to swear in a new president. It wasn’t the person I wanted, but I reflect on President Obama’s legacy with bittersweet fondness. As I write this piece, I reflect on his message of hope and change and I see hope and I see change. To many, hope did not come in the form that they’d imagined it would when Obama took the white house. But to me, his work was nothing that could be done overnight or even in eight years. The work that President Obama started is work that must be continued on for generations. The change cannot stop in 2008, or in 2012, or even in 2016. This change must last for a lifetime.

It is his ideas of hope and progressivism and forwardness that have truly shaped my ideologies and inspired me to push forward with some of my dreams. When I was 17, I never thought I would have to go out and purchase my own health insurance. I didn’t really think much about student loans or my reproductive rights as a woman. I never thought I would have to face racism and discrimination. I mean, I knew it was out there, but I’d never really been tainted by it; I was still innocent, jaded if you will. I never thought about things like domestic terrorism, or social security, or government assistance. I didn’t have to think about my credit, or the fact people should have the right and the freedom to worship and love who and what they choose. I didn’t think about things like that because to me, I had years to figure all of that out.

Now that I’m a ‘grown-up’, these things are at the forefront of my mind, these are issues that I fight for on a daily basis.

So thank you, President Obama, for helping me find my voice, for teaching me to stray away from the norms of society and to look deeper. Thank you for teaching me to fight not just for what I’ve been taught, but for the greater good of all people. You didn’t just teach me politically, but you taught me to have pride in my history, you and First Lady Michelle Obama showed me that Black love is still real. You taught me that Black and Excellence most certainly do go in the same sentence. You taught me that ‘when they go low, we go high’. You made me believe that the Black community was more than just the inner cities, but that there were people who cared truly about giving back to the community.

You also taught me that while you were all of these things, that only I controlled the outcome of my social, political, and economic future. You pushed me to move forward, to want to be an investment to my own community. You made me fight for school choice, for a woman’s right to choose, for freedom of religion. You made me fight for Black lives to actually matter. You gave me a soap box to preach from in terms of sexuality and equality for all. You have essentially turned me into the future political giant I will become one day. You made me believe that America is a great place; we just have to unearth some of its potential. I may talk a lot about how much America sucks, but you’ve taught me that we suck by choice. We won’t become the world giant that we used to be until we get off our asses and be the change we wish to see in the world.

So thank you, President Obama, for literally changing my life by making the decision to run for president. When I’m commentating on CNN in 2030, I’ll be sure to give you a shout out. And when my grandson runs for president one day many, many years from now, it’ll be because I told him your story about hope and change.

Sincerely yours,

A Future Change Maker.