To culminate the many times I got to see Barack Obama speak both in Chicago and New York City over the last year and a half, including being in Grant Park on election night, I planned a semi-spontaneous trip to D.C. for the Inauguration.
It was too expensive to get there in any direct manner, so I opted to fly to Savannah, Georgia on Friday, January 16 and stay with my friend’s mom on St. Helena Island in South Carolina (my friend, Zach, flew down from New York City to meet me) for the weekend. On Monday, January 19 Zach and I rented a car and drove to D.C. in record time.
We stayed with my friend P.J., who is currently a med student at Georgetown and all woke up early the next day to take a bus down to the Mall. We successfully found our friend Devon among the millions of visitors before all the festivities began.
Like Chicago on election night, the people in D.C. evoked the same amount of love and relief about Obama taking office after the last eight years of the Bush administration.
I am so glad I made it there and that I got to experience such an important day surrounded by a few of my closest friends, as well as the millions of others.
This video includes a brief interview on the night of January 18, footage from our roadtrip on the 19th, inauguration day coverage on the 20th and a few additional interviews on the 21st.