Democracy plaza at Rockefeller Center
Photo credit: nbcnews.tumblr.com

Oh November…you have been a super weird month and it’s only day 7.  I must apologize to you all for disappearing for about a week, but us New Yorkers are still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  My roommates and I lost power last Monday night, finally got it restored on Saturday morning, and then came home yesterday to find that we did not have internet or cable…on election night.  Cue mass hysteria: one person on their cell phone screaming and in tears with Time Warner, another on their cell phone frantically looking up electoral college votes and another unplugging and re-plugging the cable box.  It was not pretty.  Finally someone (I can’t remember who because so much was going on) proclaimed that the bar downstairs did in fact have cable.  We immediately marched out of our apartment and parked ourselves there for the remainder of the night.

Before I get into my election night experience, I do want to acknowledge the fact that when I started this blog I mentioned that I would not discuss politics.  While I plan on sticking to this promise, I do want to talk about last night’s election festivities without hopefully getting too deep into my beliefs, morals, political affiliation.  That said, you probably won’t have any doubt in your mind as to who I voted for 🙂

So last night started relatively normally. I was on edge all day thinking about the election so I forced myself to go to a yoga class which was a smart decision.  My moment of zen was tragically short-lived when I walked in my apartment to my roommate screaming “SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE TV!!!”. Um…alright, everyone just needs to calm the hell down.  After tinkering with the TV for a bit and pretending I knew what I was doing (as well as all that was described in the first paragraph of this post), we braved the cold for about 4 steps to our neighborhood bar with snacks and bowls of pasta to enjoy as we bit our nails and watched the results come in.

So everyone by this point should know how the election resulted.  I really only chose to write about this because election night is one of the few nights I feel truly proud to be American outside of when I am traveling.  There have been so many times, especially this past year, when I have been truly amazed by this country.  This applies to the good and the bad.  Through my travels I have seen so much beauty in America, the landscapes, the people, the variety of beliefs, the fact that we can express most of these beliefs without fear of persecution, the food…too many things to list.  I have also seen and experienced horrible things in America that make me want to flee to a foreign land and start a completely new life.  All of that said, I feel like election night brings all of these emotions to a head and the experience can be one that totally divides people or brings them together.  I am immensely grateful to say that I experienced the latter and last night, felt so proud of my fellow Americans and felt so proud to BE American.

Although this campaign had its moments on both sides, last night both candidates were so humble and gracious and gave me hope that over the next four years we are all going to try hard to work together to create a better life for everyone.  Last night I sat in a bar with people who all looked completely different yet were all filled with the same amount of pride and hope because in that moment we believed that America truly is the greatest nation in the world.  Also…if President Obama’s speech didn’t make you shed a tear and wave an American flag then I worry that you may not have a soul. Ha kidding! (kinda)

Ok. Stepping off my soap box now.  Bottom line, I say all that to say that I’m so fired up to continue exploring this country! Maybe I can hit the rest of my states in the next four years 🙂

Final update. It’s slightly blizzarding in New York City right now. Me thinks Mother Nature is a bit peeved with us…