Not that this world needs another blog post about Barack Obama or this election, but I still wanted to spend a little bit of time to put down in words what I’ve been feeling these past few days.
Like most people I know, I’ve been finely tuned in on the day to day political news since the beginning of the Democratic primary election last year. I wrote about and attended Obama’s conference call with expats in China. I put an Obama ‘08 bumper sticker on my furniture. I missed my flight and had to pay loads more money than I had to because I was glued to the couch watching Hillary’s convention speech. I donated money to a political campaign for the first time
And tomorrow, it will all be over. I didn’t volunteer like so many of my countrymen and countrywomen back home. I didn’t make calls or fundraise or go door-to-door. I didn’t attend any rallies or townhalls or even watch any campaign events in a social setting. I am not the most gung ho and hard core of Obama or Democratic supporters. But tomorrow it will be over and there will be a big gaping emptiness in my life. I can only imagine what those folks who actually put in hours of time and effort are going to feel afterwards; must be even crazier for them.
In a few hours I’m going to wake up earlier than I normally do and switch on CNN. After the third debate I just wanted to fast forward to this moment, and every hour that goes by I feel more and more anxious and nervous and excited and scared and hopeful and frustrated that we can’t fast forward this one last bit. Dan the Blogger told me he doesn’t plan on watching the news tomorrow because he doesn’t want people to see him cry. Joe the CEO told me he wants to watch with a handful of quietly focused people. Clint the Motion Graphics Studio Owner is going to invite three friends over to watch and drink. I still don’t know what I’m going to do.
I don’t really know what I’m trying to say here in this post. Being so far away from home, it’s funny how American I have felt throughout this campaign. I remember back in ‘04 when I just felt disgusted at disappointed after Bush won re-election. It was a really depressing and emotional day. If I have to feel that tomorrow again I don’t know if I can recover. And that’s not an exaggeration. It will be heartbreaking. I don’t know if I can take that again.
I really want to celebrate tomorrow night. I want to holler and hug and toast and laugh and just be filled with joy. That’s really how I’ll feel if Obama wins. I’ll feel like that for a long time. And that is why this is what is going on in my head tonight before I go to sleep: please, those of you in Ohio and Florida and Pennsylvania and Nevada and Virginia and Colorado and New Mexico and New Hampshire and Indiana and Iowa and that one small little corner of Nebraska; please come through for us. For Americans who really want to be proud and hopeful and excited and willing to invest themselves in our country again.
Please make Barack Obama our president. I’m wishing as hard as I can from a lonely corner in Shanghai. Let’s make tomorrow one of the best days of our lives.
