Barack Obama's Victory: 'I Never Thought it Would Happen'
Student Ryan Calhoun says he never believed a black man would be president.
Nov. 5, 2008— -- Tuesday, November 4, 2008, is a day that I don't think I will ever forget for as long as I live or for anyone who voted on this day. A day that will be marked in history books forever, the first African-American president was elected. For me, it's a day that I can honestly say that I never thought it would happen, but now I feel that anything can happen.
When I watched President-elect Obama from a live truck monitor in the field I thought back to when I was 7 years old on a third-grade field trip to a camp site.
Our class camped out for three days, and on the first day we were asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. My answer was "a professional athlete" and every other kid looked at me and said, "Yeah, that would be cool."
The first thing my parents taught me when I was growing up was how to shoot a basketball, hit a baseball and throw a football. But immediately after I answered my question, I will never forget it to this day, a blond girl named Brittany said. "I want to be the first female president."
People in the class just looked around at one another, and I said to myself, "Is that possible. I don't think that's possible?"
I was a young African-American who never believed that was possible nor did it ever cross my mind that I could become president. But now, there are going to be not just African-American children but children from all different backgrounds across the nation, who, when they are asked what they want to be when they grow up, can respond without questioning their answer, "I want to be the president of the United States."
That is what America is all about: having a dream and having the chance to pursue it.
For many, electing Obama restored that dream last night.
The Declaration of Independence says it all. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
