A Word on our Generation and Politics

My real introduction to American politics were named Monica Lewinsky and impeachment. I've spent the better part of my so-called adult life living abroad in a very anti-American world (Ironically, most of that time pretending to be Canadian) and four years ago when I voted for the first time I was left with a feeling that our generation was completely excluded from the process, and so was the opinion of the rest of world.

Then this guy came along and university students, my foreign friends, professors all took their place standing behind him -- he was our candidate. For precisely that reason, I never truly believed he would win. But then it would seem the stars aligned, and when I sat in a Toronto movie theater and listened to Jon Stewart announce that Barack Obama had just been elected my president, I cried and then I cheered with about a thousand other people of my generation. But these people raucously celebrating were Canadian! Our candidate became everyone's candidate, and such celebration hasn't moved the world since that scene in Armageddon when the meteor that hurtled towards earth to end all life as we know it was destroyed. Remember that? Remember how wonderful and inspiring and mythical that felt?

Until now, it had been a bumpy road for me and my nationality, so patriotism and love of country had always felt cheesy and naive. But they were all I could feel as I listened to our President-Elect speak. And then for the first time in my life, I woke up yesterday overwhelmed with pride to be an American and to claim this fairy tale for my own.