The Moment

today, when the first president of color was sworn in, i was standing in the main lobby of my agency. the plasma tv's they house there are usually reserved for glorifying our clients when they visit or for touting our company slogans with cheesy graphics, but the magnitude of today was so big that they had no choice but to switch every TV to CNN.

today, when the first real people's president of my generation was sworn in, i was initially holding a bagel with too much cream cheese and a hot coffee. i realized it would be silly for me to remember this moment years from now and picture my fat ass holding food and coffee while the first people's president took his oath of office, so i put that shit down on a table.

today, when the first president with a really muslim ass name was sworn in, i stood with about 50 other co-workers who made their way from all the different advertising departments to the lobby to witness history. colored folks, whiteys (mostly whiteys, but hey, they're still the majority), gays, straights, oldies, young'ns, dudes, chicks, christians, non-christians, city-raised, farm-raised, bruins, trojans. most of us didn't know each other, but together we laughed and together we clapped, because we didn't have to be all friends to know that for the first time in our lives, everyone could agree that the most important job in the entire world was finally going to best man qualified for it.

that's where i was. that's how i'll remember it. and i'll never forget it for the rest of my life.

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on another note regarding the inauguration, i came across this story behind the guy who's writing most of these great obama speeches, including today's. the guy is a total symbol of who obama inspires the most today: rock band playing, red bull drinking facebookers, who pull all-nighters before the big due dates and do their homework at starbucks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us-speech
(no, this isn't the same guy who directed 'iron man' and 'elf')

all those times i downed red bulls and coffee at work, i knew that somebody somewhere was doing the same thing and producing greatness. one day i hope the taurine and caffeine inspire me to do something just as awesome.