Election Night in Chicago: I Was There!
Last night I had the amazing honor of attending Election Night in Grant Park. As a cynic and anxiety-prone person, those types of things usually aren’t my thing. All those people, the possibility of drama or even worse, loss. But, as an adventurer, I went.
Gratefully, I didn’t let my nerves get the best of me, because it was hands down the most incredible experience in my lifetime.
We arrived at Grant Park at 5pm and didn’t leave until Midnight, all the while standing on our feet and unwilling to bare the pizza lines. So we just stood, hungry, watching CNN intently on a jumbo tron, updating our Facebooks, texting friends/family and waiting for the answer we all hoped to hear.
At 10pm, it was called. We cried, we hugged, we celebrated.
By that point, the crowd COULD NOT wait to see our president-elect, Barack Obama.
When he finally did, it was breathtaking. I’ve never seen a crowd of people so large behave so peacefully. We all listened intently and hung on to every word.
This experience definitely restored my faith as an American and made me proud to be a Chicagoan(just one more reason!) If you missed it, here’s the video for you.
Couldn’t agree with you more. The whole thing was so well organized, the people all hopeful and sharing one goal. I don’t think I heard one word spoken in anger all night!