14 April 2007

Mr. President?

I am exhausted. I'm generally not a political gal, but like many people I've found myself caught up in the buzz that is Barack Obama and I found out a few days ago that he was coming to Atlanta for a rally at Georgia Tech. Instead of just showing up for it and being one in the crowd (of apparently 20,000!) I decided to volunteer. I got there just before 8:00 AM and spent the next 4 hours running around, helping out where I could. When Mr. Obama finally took the stage, I had a good spot to hear his speech and was moved, moved by his words, moved by the sheer size of the crowd, but mostly moved by all the different kinds of people there. It was just wonderful to see so many people coming together in hopefulness. It's something I won't ever forget. This was a big moment for me because I know I would not have bothered to volunteered for anything or anybody a year ago, I know I would not have been in any kind of shape to do the walking, lifting and carrying involved, but today I did it. I walked around GT's hilly campus and passed out signs, I helped setup and take down barricades, I ran around tying and placing balloons, it was great. I did have to take a little break because I needed some water and food around 11:30 or so, but overall I did pretty good. I surprised myself. Things like this confirm for me that I can do more stuff now, that I can make up my mind to do something and go freakin' do it and not have to worry too much about the physical requirements involved.

Overall, a great day. I know I will be sore in the morning, but it was oh so worth it. By the way, I totally got to shake his hand and nearly melted....

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Double wow -- one for all the activity and one for shaking Obama's hand. Now I wanna shake *your* hand!

April 14, 2007 at 10:02 PM  
Blogger Tia L. said...

Yeah, it was amazing to see him in real life. I've seen him on Oprah and a bunch of other things and to see him in the flesh was just a thrill. I do wonder though, what he thinks about the reactions he gets from people sometimes. I saw a cute little boy's face completely light up when Obama talked to him for like two seconds, he was in tears he was so happy, it was amazing. I'll never forget it.

April 15, 2007 at 8:13 AM  

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