That morning, November 6, I got out of bed at 4:00 a. m. (eight hours ahead of the time in Chicago) I am indeed a morning person, don’t you think?. I was doing homework for my Problem-Based Learning course that I was taking and between sips of coffee, and micro conversations with my husband, I turned on the television and was astounded as Barrack Obama continued to gain Electoral College votes. At that point he had 333 electoral seats against the 150 seats for McCain, with only 270 seats needed to win the election. This was not to be the last count either.

While the Japanese and Chinese watched the election on Tuesday night and celebrated with intrepidation over its outcome, and Koreans watched to see who would be the next president of the United States, I watched in my living room in Qatar as John McCain gave his concession speech.

I was a little shell shocked as I realized that here we were watching history in the making. There were 14 million more voters in this election than in the last, and then there was an election of America’s first black president…a man first, and then a president. Barack Obama’s election was fueled by not only America’s need for hope and change but also by the movement for hope and change that transgressed geographical borders and spread throughout the world.

I headed off to the College where I work, in anticipation of my third day of PBL training. As we gathered about discussing Barrack Obama’s victory, and drinking coffee, one of my colleagues logged on to ABC News where Obama’s acceptance speech was in progress.

“Change has come to America! Out of many we are one. While we breathe, we hope; and where we are met with cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with the timeless seed that sums up the spirit of a people: yes, we can.”

Here we were, 12 of us huddled together in that little office, in Doha, Qatar; all of us Canadians, hugging each other while tears ran down our cheeks. It was a moment of victory and celebration for all.

As we wiped out tears away, reality of the moment returned. We proceeded to gather for our class knowing well that our world had changed forever.

Roxy

www.roxydoes.com