Last night we walked barefoot to the White House.

The night was cool and a fine mist fell. I realized probably a mile down 16th St. that we should have probably put on shoes before we had run out onto the street, but we didn’t care. Adrenaline and the chanting in the air kept me warm. Obama! Obama! and Yes We Can! and Yes We Did! echoed around us on the streets of DC. Taxis and cars full of people passed us by, waving and honking their horns. Others came out of their homes and apartment buildings to wave and cheer along with us. A great feeling of we did it buzzed through the atmosphere. A girl, with what sounded like a French accent, walked behind us with her friends. We heard her comment about how happy she was for America and how amazed she was to be here on this historic night. At one point she noticed that we were going shoeless. Excuse me! We turned. Can I get a picture of you? She snapped a picture of John and I with her cell phone camera. She must’ve thought we were a little nuts, but she understood. She had been remarking about how wonderful this must be for Americans. She was right.

* * * *

Jon Stewart announced that the next president of the United States was Sen. Barack Obama. I almost couldn’t believe it. I expected him to say something along the lines of uh we’re kidding, with a sheepish look on his face, we’re just guessing, we don’t know, ehhh, but we’re pretty sure. But no, CNN, MSNBC, all the other news networks confirmed it. In Ceci’s tiny apartment, we all screamed, gasped, cried. For almost two years we had been hoping for a change to come. Overwhelmed, I let myself cry for a little, finally I was able to relax after all that time, all that hoping. The room became warm with ecstatic celebration.

Nate and Kate shared a celebratory kiss. John and I hugged tight. Heather stood up, threw her arms toward the ceiling. Yes!

We ran out onto the street. We all just needed to yell and be joyous under the night sky. Neighboring houses of people aroundabouts our age were flooding onto the streets as well. We all high-fived and hugged each other, complete strangers, but for this night, we knew we had something important and fundamental in common. We needed this for our future, our world, and probably for our sanity too. We struck up patriotic songs in the middle of the street, streetlights lighting up our pavement stage. The Star-Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful never sounded so bad or so raucously good. Suggestion of us all going to Mt. Pleasant St. rippled it’s way through our street and we moved in that direction. Perhaps there would be more people gathered there. I didn't mind the idea of a street party right now. Little did I know...

By the time we got to Mt. Pleasant St. the idea of a street party had already gotten bigger. We're walking to the White House, some said. I squeezed John’s hand as we started our way south into the heart of our nation’s capitol.

Nate ran ahead with the others, shirtless now, a little inebriated and absolutely ecstatic. I saw him run up to some people at their door and hug all three of them. We passed random people by on the street and high-fived them. We’d cheer Obama! and they’d cheer back Obama!

John and I fell back, both a little slower going with no shoes on. Tim and his friend Elsa stayed behind with us, so the large group moved forward and away from us. Yet still there were others around us all cheering, all going to the same place.

It felt so surreal, this moment that I had been wishing for.

Amazingly, I had never imagined what it would be like. Maybe I thought it would jinx it, or maybe I thought it was too good to be true, but now it was here and all I could feel was pure overwhelming joy.

By the time we got to the alphabet streets I knew we were close. The noise on the streets had begun to steadily rise. We spotted the White House a block or two away and already in front of it a crowd of nearly four hundred. We obviously weren’t the only ones with this idea. People were screaming, yelling, and chanting all around us. In the center of a cluster of revelers, a reporter and cameraman were trying to get this rabble’s pure elation on film.

John, Tim, Elsa, and I wove our way through the rabble making our way to the center of the pack.  We were amazed at what was unfolding around us and I think we all felt enormously proud and patriotic at this moment. We began a loud and wonderfully off-key rendition of our National Anthem. Near the end everyone around us chimed in, the words O’er the land of the free / And the home of the brave rang high into the night air and echoed against the White House and across Pennsylvania Avenue.

This wasn’t a crowd protesting, there was no one angry here. The security officers around us just watched and some, I think smiled. They had nothing to worry about. This was just a generation of people greeting their future with enthusiasm and optimism.

In the midst of the crowd, some of my adrenaline began to wear off and I began to feel the cold November night around me. A light rain shower began to fall and goose bumps popped up on my bare arms. The pavement was wet and cool beneath my feet and I realized I was colder than before.  John took us to the Corcoran College of Art and Design to warm up and borrow some shoes for me from his co-worker Lacey. (Thanks Lacey!)

The four of us left the Corcoran, deciding that though being at the party would still be awesome but we also needed to salvage what sleep we could this night. Before leaving, I wanted to pass the White House by again and see what the crowd had become.

Now, it had overflowed into the intersection of 17th and Penn. Crowds of people stalled the intersection and stopped cars with hooting and hollering people honked their horns in celebration. The mass of people at this point must have been over a thousand by now. And more were coming.

We decided to wave down a cab to take us back to Ceci’s. Our cab driver chuckled at the people in the streets and all the commotion. He somehow found a way home for us, despite several intersections surrounding the White House being blocked off. The night had grown quiet and we all grew sleepy. Back at Ceci’s we watched Obama’s acceptance speech. As the electricity of adrenaline wore off, the reality of Obama’s victory sank in. On the drive home, we were tired and still a little damp. After dropping Tim and Elsa at their respective houses we got home, John and I curled up in bed, and remarkably, I was early to work this morning.