The Obama Inaguration

I watched the seconds in Spanish class until 11:45, hugely excited over the inauguration of Barack Obama. Finally I was able to anounce, "Necesitamos salir, es Obama tiempo!" (We need to go, it's Obama time). I walked into the gym and was expecting the speech of a lifetime from Obama. Almost immediately, Biden was getting sworn in. Then Obama was sworn in and I was hugely in anticipation of his speech. I then sat silently for a little over 20 minutes.



I felt sort of empty afterwords for some reason. I figured out that it was probably because I was expecting something like Obama's convention speech or Kennedy's acceptance speech. However, Obama's speech was very strong nonetheless. I was surprised by my feeling though. I liked the speech, but just felt empty somehow. When I got home, my mom said something very wise to me that changed my opinion, however. She said that it was time for us to "Stop looking to Obama for words, and start looking to him for actions." I then realized that I always looked to Obama's words of hope, and now need him to do actions that give me hope. I now no longer feel empty and am trying to not just focus on Obama's rhetoric going forward and to judge him on his actions most of all. Thus far, I have been very happy with Obama's actions for his transition team, and hopeful going forward that he will put his plans into action.