Hello! It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted to my blog, but I’d like to make it my resolution to pick it back up again. I’ll start by telling you about my experience at the inauguration! I am so glad to be in DC at a time like this, it was incredible.
My roommate and I decided to leave early, like 4am early. She had some friends who were planning on going so I was going to tag along with them. She and I woke up at the awful hour of 3am, got dressed in a million layers and got ready. Meanwhile, her friends were sound asleep. They overslept, so we left campus around 5am just the two of us. We weren’t really sure of the best path to take since many streets were blocked off, so we decided to head to Union Station and go from there. This turned out to be an excellent idea, as they had a lot of security and people to provide information along the route. We walked, and walked, and walked. And then we walked some more through what I can only guess was the 395 tunnel. Along the route were throngs of volunteers shouting, “Good morning! Welcome to the Inauguration!” which was really encouraging. There were tons and tons of people walking on the streets with us, but everyone was in a great mood. Once we got closer to the mall, the crowds picked up, and it was like a mosh pit the rest of the way there. You could’ve picked your feet up and been carried by the crowd. My roommate and I kept ahold of one another as it would’ve been easy to get separated and lost. We got to the entrance just past the Hirshorn museum and the whole crowd was squeezed through a standard door size gate. This for me, was the funniest experience as hundreds of people squeezed so tightly together that you could almost feel your chest compress. But we made it! We made our way through the crowds already assembled on the mall and found a spot with a great view of the Jumbotron. To the right we had a clear view of the Capitol, so we were nicely situated. It was only 7:30am at this point, so we were in for a long wait.
Neither of us ate breakfast, so we decided to give up our spot in search for food. We found a hotdog concession line and waited for 2 hours to get our coney, fries and hot chocolate. This helped to pass the time and was well worth the wait. It was during this stretch of time that the cold hit me the hardest. I had thought ahead and worn several layers of clothing, but not enough socks. Foolishly I was only wearing one pair of socks, so my feet were absolutely freezing. I’ve never been so cold for so long in my life. Hey, I’m from Texas! I stomped my feet and wiggled my toes to keep blood circulating, and by the time we got our food and ate, I felt 100% better.
We decided not to swarm back through the crowd and lingered on the sides where we had more personal space and could still see the Jumbotron. It was so exciting to be there and to be apart of such a momentus day. Obama’s speech was really inspirational, and I enjoyed every part of the day. I thought it was great when he sort of stumbled over the words to the oath in the beginning. For someone who is always so poised and eloquent, it was cute to see him be ‘human’ and trip over his words.
Once the ceremony was finished, she and I hopped on the metro and made it back to Gally with little delays. The line for the metro took about 45 minutes or so, but once we were on the train it was smooth sailing. Compared to my other friends stories of delays and road closures, we had an incident free experience.
I’m so proud of myself for braving the crowds and the weather to attend. I will never forget that day.