"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."

Above quote from President Barack Obama's inauguration speech today. Read on for more info.



One of the things I love most about my job is the total autonomy that I have. Not only do I manage my own building, making my own decisions, and create my own standards for my staff, but I also have complete reign over my schedule and my time. It's this sort of thing that allowed me to take off a decent part of the day to sit in front of my TV and watch CNN as they gave me incredible coverage of the inauguration of President Obama. In fact, I'm STILL watching it; now I'm seeing all the balls and the dances and thinking about how incredible those parties must be.

I realized the other day that I can remember watching the inauguration of the last few 4 year increments. Part of me wonders if I remember seeing a recap on the evening news or actually watching them in real time.....shouldn't I have been in school? Did I manage to convince my mom to let me stay home? I'm not really sure, but I have vivid memories of watching President Clinton take oath (the first time, I think) and I would've been fairly young at the time. I remember lots of his campaign against then President Bush Sr. and Ross Perot; I even remember watching the debates. While politics has been a part of growing up for me (I remember campaigning for my school levys to be passed and constantly aware of what was going on in the world) it seems to have been fallen by the wayside. Today as I watched all of this I decided that I should become a more politically minded individual and get a better grasp on the hot topics of the day. Since I feel like I'll officially become an adult when I turn 25 this spring, this seems fitting.

Anyway, I decided to check out the new http://www.whitehouse.gov that CNN kept discussing and immediately settled on the biographies of those important people of this administration. I was immediately reminded of how education-minded the Obamas and Bidens are, especially with higher education:
First Lady Michelle worked for the University of Chicago for many years, including serving as Associate Dean of Student Services and Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the medical center.
President Barack taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Jill Biden (Mrs. Vice-President) has taught English for years at the Delaware Technical and Community College [ahhh, how my heart soars at this because of my experience at the small community college-esque campus]. She just earned her Ph.D in 2007 but that's okay because she's been busy raising her family and earning TWO master's degrees (in English and Reading). Oh, and she had on knee-high boots today. That furthers my intital thought that I LIKE her :)


All of this gives me a good feeling, especially once I browsed the agenda on Education (also available at the White House site). One of the things that made me smile was the idea that the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) could be eliminated and replaced with a check box on your tax form. As someone who has experience working in Financial Aid (especially with assisting families with filling out this form).....well, I can't really express the amount of frustration that could be eliminated and the number of families who would probably receive aid who do not currently because of the complication of the form. Wow.

So....today has not been about work for me. It's not been about what I'm working on, what's on my list of things to do, or what's happening in my building. Today has been about what the world will look like in the next 4 years, and what we can hope to see in the future. It's about change and new beginnings, no matter where you live or who you voted for.