How many times can you say that you are waking up to a changed world? I can count the times that I have on one hand, and most of them are not good. Our new President elect touched on this last night, when discussing what the 106 year old female voter had seen in her lifetime, and that got me thinking – how many truly world-changing events have I been around to witness?
How do we recognize these events? Most often they are the “I’ll never forget where I was when…” moments. “I’ll never forget where I was when Challenger exploded.” “I’ll never forget where I was when the Berlin Wall fell.” “I’ll never forget where I was when we went to war with Iraq – both times.” “I’ll never forget where I was when the twin towers fell.”
I’ll never forget where I was when we elected the first African American President of the United States.
I mean, wow. What a way to top the “I’ll never forgets”. All I can hope now is that we continue to top ourselves with the positives instead of the negatives, that we keep moving forwards, and that we never forget what it means to all of us that we can be proud to be who we are, to believe what we believe, and to live the lives we do.
