What Obama means to me

So I have a confession to make, I didn't start out this past election riding the Obama train, in fact it took me almost until the bitter end to hop on. But once I did I didn't look back and on inauguration day I found myself crying over the amazing scenes displayed on TV.
Let me explain something here. I am a white woman. In fact I am probably one of the whitest people alive. People joke and say that I glow or makes jokes about me catching on fire if I'm in the sun for too long, so no, I am not a minority. In this respect I have no personal comparison to what it must have felt like to be a black man making his way through the political ranks of our country, but I feel that I can relate on another level.
See, I live among a different type of social injustice and unfortunately this past year has shown me that no one is immune from prejudice and that skin color doesn't necessarily dictate it. I live in a town that frowns on education and strong work ethics. The people here harbor this insane idea that if you strive to better yourself mentally or financially then you are not worthy of their time. That advanced education is a wasted expense and not needed for a truly happy and free life. I've been told numerous times to take my fancy degree and not come back, have heard how overqualified I am more times than I can count, and actually had interviews cancelled because it was discovered that I had left my masters degree off my resume in hopes of just getting my foot in the door. So, I have experienced social prejudice first hand and it made me lose hope.
I started to doubt myself and think that I would never succeed. I would forever be held down by an education that I had aspired to for most of my adult life.
Then, an amazing thing happened. This man, also a fellow Columbia alumni, appeared and he started preaching about hope. About how a black man could be President, be a good President, be the leader of the free world. He spoke about bringing change and realizing dreams and in not believing that the world dictated your position in life. He spoke of making your own destiny despite what the world around you might tell you. And at first I was scared to believe him. Then I realized that he was practicing what he was preaching. Here was a black man refusing to believe all his opponents and trudging ahead, shoulders down, pushing through the racial barriers that had held so many before him down. He not only preached hope, he had hope. And watching him succeed showed me that I too should be hopeful. He taught me to believe in myself and for that I feel like he's already lived up to, no surpassed even, all of his campaign promises and no matter what happens in the next four years I will not be disappointed. He is a living dream and for that I am eternally grateful.