| | Smith has a great house community and last night was a perfect example of this. Starting at 7:20, about thirty of the women in my house gathered in the living room to watch the election returns. For the first hour or so there was very little news. Then, slowly but surely, states started being called. At first it was just Vermont and Kentucky, then others. Every time CNN announced a state there was tons of screaming. We made milkshakes and peanut-butter chocolate cookies, both of which kept everyone pretty hyper (as if the election wasn't exciting enough!) About halfway through the mid-west, we decided to make a map and color in all the states as they were called. Though many of the states were slightly (okay, very) misshapen, it was exciting to watch as more and more of them were filled in.
The room got progressively more crowded as the night went on and when the race was finally called for Obama there were probably close to fifty people. I've never seen a room erupt so suddenly in my life. I couldn't even hear the newscaster as he announced what the words on the screen has already told us, Barack Obama was the new president of the United States. Everyone was hugging, screaming, and jumping up and down. At some point during all the chaos, someone wrote OBAMA in enormous letters across our map. A number of us went outside to run around for a while on Chapin Lawn with a group of people who were watching it in the Campus Center (there was a party run by the Student Government Association, the Smith Democrats, and the Smith Republicans).
Though the numbers waned throughout the night, we were at about thirty strong when new President-elect Obama finally gave his acceptance speech at around 12:30. We sat in near-silence (with a few intermittent cheers and aw's). Afterward, there was plenty of celebration all around Northampton. People were screaming and running through campus and downtown. It was a night to remember.
|
