"i have never been more hopeful that we will get there, we as a people will get there."

written 11/7

we did it! i'm so proud of america! i can say for the first time in a very long time i am truly proud to be an american. i only wish i could've been home to celebrate. i was trying to stay up all night to watch it, but knew there was a possibility of me falling asleep so i set my alarm for 6am thinking it wouldn't be announced before midnight... only problem is that the results were apparently announced about 1030 east coast time so i didn't get to see all the stuff leading up to the final announcement, but i did wake up just in time for obama's speech, after which i burst into tears, jumped up and down and ran down the hall of our apartment by myself... at 630 am...
not being there for this historic moment made me really sad and miss so many of you who i know would've hugged and danced with me for so long. and in the same instant of all this excitement and celebration i'm also really upset about prop. 8 passing in california. i am obviously upset about the other states banning same sex marriage as well, but this in particular...i just can not comprehend how it is ok to give someone a right that is doing absolutely no harm to anyone, in fact it is doing just the opposite, and then take it away. it makes me so sad.

yeah, as you can tell i'm feeling a bit nostalgic and homesick this week. i think it's also due to the realization that i only have a little over a month left here, although i do have a new appreciation for cnu and will be excited to return there in the spring.
i now have a lot of work to catch up on that i've been putting off for weeks... but i guess it doesn't really matter since my professor has yet to set one due date thus far. you all know i am a laid back person, but if you give me no structure at all i begin to lose my mind. i register for next semester's classes today and this weekend i will get atleast 2 papers done, hopefully 3. i dont really care that i have a lot of work to do now because the traveling and experiences i've had far outweigh turning b.s. papers in 'on time', and i think i could really use the alone time and the audience of open-ended philosophy papers to let out my thoughts.

next post i will add pics and more info about berlin because there is so much to say about that glorious city!

if you have some extra time i would highly recommend reading this: http://tinyurl.com/6x3h72 (the first sentence of the article is pretty ironic..)


"Watching the returns on election night was an amazing experience. Barack Obama is our new president. Change is here. I, like millions of Americans, felt like we had taken a giant step towards equality. We were watching history.
This morning, when it was clear that Proposition 8 had passed in California, I can’t explain the feeling I had. I was saddened beyond belief. Here we just had a giant step towards equality and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away.
I believe one day a “ban on gay marriage” will sound totally ridiculous. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out for equality for all of us."
- ellen degeneres



"to have a moment that means this much, that you can put alongside the emancipation proclamation in our history, in terms of what the idea of America is, and what the relationship of Americans are to one another, so that we can speak to the rest of the world ... it's sort of worth crying about."
-rachel maddow

i hope you are well, and that you remember,
'If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.'

<3a