Victory is by far, the sweetest.

I sang the national anthem over a candled batch of brownies with some good friends tonight, raising emphatically my half-full plastic cup of cheap champagne, bleating the high notes with shameless pride, and balking at the realization that we all knew the words. At the very moment Obama was officially elected president, things became real, or different, for all of us. It was a moment entirely unforgettable; one that will last in my mind for the rest of my life.

Tonight, politics feels as if it is again a viable course toward fairness; the future of what is to be history is present to us, as were the pens we used to vote, to write and rewrite that which can now be. I can, for the first time in my lifetime, think of myself in terms of a political whole, as a citizen of my country, without my tail between my legs.

I hugged more strangers in the street tonight than I likely will for years to come. Or maybe not. Maybe from now on I will just hug people on the street sometimes, just because we know we belong to a common body, a common people who cares for one another, and for the fruition of some far-off greater good. The physical projection of 'who we are' has today become less of what we look like; we hope the color game has lost some of its otherwise immovable fervor. The significance of this day has proven that we may look different, and in fact we do, but we can and do think in the same way, in support of the same end. What we are and who we are is not what we pigeonhole one another to be, but it is exactly what we've proven ourselves to be today: a body of people unwilling to stand for that in which it does not believe; that to which it can never relate. We have proven that we are more than willing--forcible, powerful, and relentless, in fact--for the achievement and creation of that which we know can and should be. This day is great, in a strong, timeless sense, for Americans, and above many other things, will stay. Barack Obama's term(s) in office will ultimately come to an end, but this day will stay. It has permanently marked history with a fiery, passionate ink. And to live through that--to live within that--is truly profound.

So, maybe our apathy is past, for tonight The hope we've teetered upon for two long years is no longer an idealistic dream--tonight. The expectant reality of change, for whatever it's worth, is now. Will it only be for now? Time will tell.