Farewell Obama…A Nation Gets a Pep Talk

I was 23, fresh out of the Marine Corps and tending bar at an Irish Pub in the shadows of the Capitol in DC, and on a gray day in November I watched a movement succeed. I spent that evening watching a room full of people erupt into tears of joy as Barrack Obama became the President Elect. The people in that room would go on to work on health care, they would go on to serve this country in all the ways that make us great and proud.

It has been a little over 8 years since that day. In those 8 years I’ve grown as a person, learned what matters in life. I looked the love of my life in the eyes and swore vows to her. I welcomed two kids into my life.

I saw a man tonight pass the torch on to a new generation, in a way that only he can. Tonight I feel burdened, I feel a weight on my shoulder. But I also feel stronger than I ever have before. There is much work to do, but we can get it done. True grit is forged in the furnace of adversity. There is an immense challenge ahead of us, but together we can stand up for what is right and ensure our democracy pushes on.

Tommorrw morning we will wake up, we will go to work. We will raise our families, we will teach our kids what is right and what is wrong. We will teach them to love, we will teach them to care, we will teach them kindness. We will do so with our words and our actions.

We say farewell this evening, but we wake to the new generation picking up the torch. We will follow the directive of our commander in cheif “disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself.”

I look forward to supporting and helping new candidates run for every office in the land so long as they are “unselfish, altruistic, creative, patriotic” and beleive in a better world.

I’ve grown up a lot in these 8 years, and I am inspired that we will rise together and 8 years from now we will look back at tonight as the night we stopped mourning November and started building the future.