Today’s my final day in the office. So I’m finally taking the time to sit down, look around and take it all in. It’s the pillars in the office that strike me the most. All of the pillars throughout the office are covered with signatures of the community leaders, staff workers, interns and local volunteers who have spent countless hours working for the cause, the cause that is boldly painted on walls “hope.action.change. Obama ‘08.”
People continue to ask me as I leave, “What did you learn from your time here?” and I’ve been pretty stumped. Sure there are the obvious things: I learned how campaigns worked, I learned how to work 12 hour days, I learned how to communicate my opinion on difficult issues and I learned the importance of civic duty. But those were implicit lessons that I knew I’d learn when I flew out to
As cliché as it sounds now, I learned about the Audacity of Hope. In our imperfect world full of imperfect people there is a necessity for hope, a desire and belief of something better. I don’t think that we can live in this world without hope: whether it is hope in the goodness of people, hope in a better tomorrow or hope in God. Unfortunately, these days people are disillusioned by hope. They are afraid to hope because they are afraid of being let down or being wrong, and that fear is paralyzing.
It’s here on the Obama campaign that I once again discovered the audacity of hope. I’ll be honest, before I joined the campaign I was a cynic. I supported Obama but couldn’t bring myself to believe that he could win. I couldn’t bring myself to put my hope in him. But here in
I double-dog dare you to HOPE.
Working hard, living the dream and changing the world. Thus is the life of an Obama intern.
If all goes to plan, in ten years I will be happily married with a couple of kids settling down in the suburbs. If all goes to plan, I’ll be financially secure and living a comfortable lifestyle. If all goes to plan, I’ll be very content with my life. But is being “content” good enough? What up’s and down’s, excitements and downfalls will I forgo living life according to my “plan book.” The last thing I want is to look back at my life with regret, knowing that I could have done great but settled for alright. I don’t want to live my life afraid of risks; rather I want to live my life embracing risks.
I truly respect men who live with a greater vision and a sense of purpose. As RFK said, “Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital, quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.”
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I have absolutely no idea what the next three weeks have in store for me, but I know this for certain, I’ll never look back ten years from now and wonder what could have been.
(written 8/6/07)
That’s right, this morning I shook hands and took a photo with Senator Obama, the man I believe should be the next president of the United States. It was extraordinary meeting Obama. He is a man that I have only the utmost respect for, a man that can empower this nation’s young people, and a man that I believe can change this nation for the better. I sincerely believe he is our generation’s JFK and will forever be remembered in history as a great man.
