As I write this, I’m speeding on a train from London’s Paddington Station to Bristol Temple Meads, the station near the University of Bristol, where I will be spending my semester studying abroad. The past few days have been quite a blur, but a very exciting, sleep-deprived blur.
The blurrage started around 11:30PM on the night of 16 January when I landed in Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport to overnight at a hotel before registering for a conference around the inauguration. It was one of those GYLC/CYLC/NYLF shoot-offs. The next day, while chilling in the airport I ran into Mark, one of my good friends from Vassar who I didn’t expect to be at the conference, but I yelled over to him, and it turned out we were staying at the same hotel, and later, the same floor. We got to the hotel (Omni Shoreham, on Calvert and 24th) and then headed down to the Marriot across the street for “heavy hors d’oveurs.” It was a righteous mess. Five thousand kids in the University conference alone (there was also a youth conference and a high school conference, each with five thousand participants as well) made for only one plate of food after not eating at all for the entire day. Mind you, our keynote for the night, Luke Russert, is a cool dude, so that kinda made up for it. Following the address, I ran into one of my childhood friends from home, who introduced me to some of his good friends from his GYLC conference. We then consolidated our group of friends, making about a standard seven of us, and we hung out together for the rest of the conference.
The next day was the big kick-off to the inaugural ceremonies down on the National Mall. We wanted to skip the speaker before lunch so we could head down and get a spot, but one of our group (cough cough Sayuri cough) decided to stay and hear him. So we stayed and after a bunch of other inconveniences, we finally got started on our way down to the mall, and we managed to catch the last bit of the concert. So, to console ourselves, we rode the carousel near the Smithsonian. It worked out pretty well I’d say.
The next day was spent in preparation for the night, because our group of seven was going to head down to the Mall and camp out til inauguration time. DISCLAIMER: To the readers out there who ever get invited to a Presidential Inaugural Conference (especially UPIC), don’t go. We didn’t get any spot reserved for us on the Mall, despite paying near $3000USD. All they said was, don’t bring this, bring that, dress warmly, good luck. So, with this in mind, my friends and I went forth into the night. We got on the Mall at 2AM, but one of our friends thought it was way too easy to get on without security and what not, so she went to check in. We later found out there was a security checkpoint, so we hiked another 20 minutes to get there.
Now, picture this: You are crammed into an underpass with thousands, if not tens of thousands of people waiting to see President Obama’s swearing in. There are no bathrooms within a fifteen minute walk outside the checkpoint because they’re all within the secured inauguration perimiter. For about four and a half hours, you don’t move more than three feet forward toward the checkpoint gates. The temperature hovers around negative 17 celsius, and even after sunrise, you can barely feel your digits. However, there’s a sense of grand anticipation and excitement in the air, punctuated by chants of “O-BA-MA!,” the singing of the Star Spangled Banner and Lean on Me.
The historical and cultural significance of standing in line with all those thousands of people finally hit home at some point at around 5 or 6AM when all of a sudden, quietly and humbly, floated the call, “Lift evr’y voice and sing, til earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty!” In this underpass, there were two groups of us, separated by a road, and there was a very lively group of black Obama supporters that kept their energy all through the night, and when they heard the words, their tone changed. I understood why it was called ‘black national anthem’ for that very reason that night. We all stood at attention, and those who knew the words, including myself, sang out first softly, but growing in confidence and strength, despite the demanding range the song presents. Even people who didn’t know the words sensed something in the words and the atmosphere and the rowdiness temporarily subsided.
It was in those few moments, while we all joined in ‘the black national anthem’ in one way or the other that the momentousness of the day sunk in. Even though I hadn’t been able to see my toes for a few hours at that point, and even though my fingers were also going at that point, I felt a strange warmness that came with the solidarity we showed in support of the new President and the triumph it represented for the black community.
Anyway, fast forward to finally getting through the security barrier and near the start of the parade route, we finally made it through around 7:30AM. We sat down on the sidewalk and put down our blankets and tried to get warm again. We had gone to one of the thousands or porta-potties that line the parade route and were ready to hunker down for another few hours. We decided not to go back to the Mall, since the chances of us getting out in order to get to our conference gala were very slim, but then being exposed to the elements all night finally took its toll. We couldn’t take it anymore, so we decided to up and leave to go to one of the indoor locations the conference had reserved. We had about an hour and a half left to go, but in the end, I feel like it was a good decision. We were there, and we saw the armed forces forming the honour guard with the different police and state trooper contingents.
From the National Press Club in E and 14th, at some time around noon, we watch Barack Hussein Obama take the Oath of Office to become President. Mind you, he had officially been President for a few minutes by that point, but watching him repeat the oath sealed the deal. At the end of the ceremony, even I was caught up in the emotion that transcended nations and stood up to sing the Star Spangled Banner with an Egyptian, Japanese-Canadian citizen, another Bahamian and a room full of Americans. It was a great moment.
Fast forward to now, after a six-hour transatlantic flight, I’m far from well rested, but I’m speeding down the track on a Bristol bound train, with gray skies and rolling hills around me. Oh, and there are some houses too. I’ll be there soon, and my computer will probably be dead by then, so I’m signing off for now. Until next time, kids.
