Many Goodbyes and Beginnings

Today is my last day in Arizona, until March (hopefully). I am a bit sad to leave my family and friends once again, but I am beyond ready to go back to the Zou and start my second semester of college. It has been a great break...a very LONG break, but a much needed one. Over this month of hibernation (as I like to call it), I have seen family and friends, watch lots and lots of television, recruited high school students to come to Mizzou, watched my high school's cheer team compete, babysat a girl I used to babysit in high school, cheered on the Mizzou gymnastics team against the Arizona State Sun Devils, and started this wonderful blog! Looking back, I guess I accomplished more than I thought, but I still could have been more productive. 

This semester will be another new beginning for me; I will be living in my sorority house (which will be an adventure for me in itself), I will have a new job at the TV station, and I will have all new classes (minus the dreaded Spanish 2). The only difference with this beginning is that I will have all the knowledge and experience that I gained as a first semester freshman. 

A new beginning will start in Washington D.C. this week with the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama. This event will go down in history and I am thrilled to see the first African American President sworn into the White House. No matter what political party you choose to be affiliated with, I think it is important to recognize that this country made history when it chose to elect Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America. Seeing any one person (man and hopefully women in the future) become president of the United States is a special experience. I feel like this year is the first year that I actually am able to absorb what is happening and appreciate the rituals and ceremonies of the inauguration as well as watch history being made. I wish so much to be in Washington to watch all the events take place, but I, a long with many other Americans, will have to watch it all on the television and keep looking for updates via New York Times.

Where there is a beginning, there is an end. Obama's new beginning marks the end of President George W. Bush's eight year run in the White House. Many people happy, many people sad. It is so easy to look upon the flaws of a leader than remember the good things that came out of this presidency. I remember waking up on the morning of September 11th, 2001 to the horror of hearing the news about two planes crashing into the Twin Towers in New York City. At the age of 11, I can't say that I fully understood what was happening, but it was comforting to hear the words of the president, only a few hours after the event, reassure the country that he would make sure that our country was safe. Not everyone agrees with the steps that President Bush took for this country after that event, but I feel that no one should form a opinion of him as a president, because most of us will never be in a situation of that proportion and most will not completely comprehend the different sides and factors that must be taken into consideration. As tomorrow is his last day in White House, I wish him happiness with his family and luck in all his future endeavors. 

I will update the blog on my travels tomorrow as I begin my journey back to Columbia, Missouri. My flight is set to depart the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport at 9:49 AM and arrive in St. Louis Lambert International Airport at 1:42 PM. Then, I will have to drive about two hours to get to Columbia. Including wait time, flight time, and drive time, that's seven hours of traveling! 

See why I call it a journey...

"All outward endings bring new and higher inward beginnings." - Laura Teresa Marquez