Yesterday morning, I woke up and practically skipped my way to the polls while listening to Korean Drama soundtrack music. I don't know if it was the chance to get out of my oven baked apartment, the chance to breathe in the fresh air of East Falls, or simply the opportunity to cast my vote for the 44th president of the United States, but for that brief duration, my mood was oddly good. Actually, I was fairly confident of an Obama win based on all those polls leading up to the election day. One can argue one way or another about the reliability of the polls and I know for a fact that many Americans and Obama diehard fans probably lost a good deal of sleep previously as they worried about the election. Maybe medical school has induced in me a very singular mindset, insular, coccooned, everything revolves around my exams and my grades. I didn't feel like I had extra time or energy wringing my hands worrying about the "fate of the nation" when in reality, all I had within my control is to cast my vote and then let history unfold for itself.
Still last night, despite my pretty cavalier attitude towards the politics and the elections, I was oddly stirred when President (can I call him that now?) Obama gave his acceptance speech in Chicago. Many in the crowds were moved to tears, I guess I can only attribute to Obama's power of personality. There was something about his countenance, so calm, so determined and yet so wholesome still, that it does inspire trust and at the very least, hope. And as he stood on the stage waving, with his family in tow, music playing in the background - isn't it always the music? -- I too uttered a prayer that America will now see better days to come. If for nothing else, I sincerely hope President Obama lives up to the hype and start rebuilding a country where its citizens can lose its long standing feeling of cynicism, jadedness and recapture that lost feeling, something close to, I'd say, pride.
