Inauguration Day

Inauguration day was a hardship, but it was worth it. We left the apartment at about 7 and tried to catch the metro downtown. But after three packed trains passed us by, we gave up and decided to walk. About a mile later, we arrived at the Capitol where we found a sea of thousands of people standing in various, intersecting lines that had no apparent beginning or ending. We decided to break around the mess and try to enter at a different gate. All the street entrances south of the capitol were closed, so we had no choice to continue following the misinformation fed to us by police about alternative street openings. Somewhere around 10th street, several in our group of 7 began to fall into despair, refusing to believe we would in fact make it into the national mall. I remained on Team Hope, believing that eventually we would make it in, and at 19th street, at about the Lincoln Memorial we found our entrance. Joyously, we weaved our way to the base of the Washington Monument and found a Jumbo-tron. We waited for about an hour in the unsympathetic cold, watching former presidents file in to celebrate and witness this historic moment.

Where we stood, it was not easy to hear the speakers, but the crowd was mindful and respectful of this. When Obama gave his inaugural address, the crowd would cheer briefly, but then would immediately silence. I felt a collective responsibility among the crowd, to take care of the other people gathered there together.
The most moving aspect of the speech for me was Obama’s call to Americans to sacrifice and be involved. I appreciate that he admits that he can’t solve all our problems ourselves, nor can government alone solve our problems. I hope that the collective atmosphere I felt as part of that crowd, translates across the country and inspires people to participate in this country to together solve the myriad of daunting predicaments we find ourselves in as a nation.

My friend was lucky enough to purchase two parade tickets and we were convinced that we could make it to both the swearing in and the parade. This was far more difficult than we anticipated. There were roadblocks and military police everywhere, forcing us to make a loop all the way around the city to go back down to the entrance gate to the parade. When we arrived, about an hour before the parade was to start, they had already closed the entrance for ticket holders. We were stuck waiting in the line with people just trying to get onto the street of the parade. I have never spent a more uncomfortable 45 minutes in my life. We were packed shoulder to shoulder, front to back with about 200 strangers trying to get through two tiny, slow-moving security gates. People concerned about Obama walking during the parade needn’t have worried. When we did get to security, we walked through metal detectors, were scanned by a wand, and had our purses emptied and swiped.

They wouldn’t let us to our seats because it was too late to cross the street so we were once again, stuck in the packed crowd. We were lucky though, because when Obama passed our section at 11th and Penn, he was walking. There were about seven rows of people in front of me so when he walked by I just held my camera up on continuous shooting while I wove around catching a glimpse of Barack and Michelle through a window of elbows, iphones, and waiving arms.

I’m sure that the rest of the parade was awesome, but I had seen all I needed to see and my cold face couldn’t take anymore of the freezing cold. We tried to get a table at a restaurant but they said the wait was “indefinite.” We shopped our way back to the apartment, collecting hats, t-shirts, buttons, and shopping bags to commemorate this event (and do our part to stimulate the economy). We didn’t make it back to about 7pm, 12 straight hours on our feet since we had left in the morning. It was a hardship, but it was worth it to have our feet on the ground at the National Mall, to witness this historic new beginning for us all.