OBAMA: It's official

I'm taking a break from movies to discuss probably the one thing that gave me more excitement this year.

At this moment, as I'm talking, CNN is waiting for Barrack Obama to emerge from the Blair House. Panning to the National Mall, there is a crowd that is by far the biggest I have ever seen on screen. The EDSA Revolutions crowds cannot compare. Yet these do not show signs of tumult. You don't see the wars raging around the world, the economic crisis raging in every nation. For one gratifying moment, you notice that what you see is hope, pure unadultered hope. And from all that I've seen on screen, fictional or not, this is the first time I've seen it in my 19 years of life.

I am Filipino, to those of you who don't know me personally. By blood I am Chinese. So by relation I am pretty much as far as far can be. But that's just the thing, I believe that I'm not the only non-American who is as excited about this event as I am, who is as inspired as this as I am.
Proof lies in the fact that there seems to be so many people of different cultures there on that place. They all brace the cold just to catch a glimpse, starting the trek there as early as 1 in the morning and enduring until mid afternoon. They all come for one reason alone.

Historic is too weak a word.

I have to admit, I feel a bit guilty, being so engrossed in the hopes of another nation, while mine still struggles endlessly with itself. But before this man came by, I had no interest in Politics whatsoever, with the concept that America is a falling power, China is a rising power that may have too much, wars are a daily thing and that my nation is a lost cause. This man changes perspective, but more than that he has given hope.

Fact is, he might not succeed. He might fail in every problem that he inherits. He might make more, but that's not the point. Just looking at the goodwill that radiates from those people, from the man himself, it takes away just for a moment all your doubts and for a moment, just a moment, you can't help but let yourself go with the moment.

I used to have no hope in my own nation, with a people of flawed perception, an inherrently corrupt government and fast falling hope. It still looks today as dim as ever, but at the very least, I've had a change of heart, and I now at least think that maybe, just maybe, we might have ourselves a better future.

I've never really had much of a role model. Whenever asked as a small kid, I really couldn't find a solid answer, not even any of the fantastic cartoon characters around. But now, at the age of 19, I think I now understand why I was so engrossed by this man's journey from obscurity to this impossible achievement, to this moment that everyone keeps repeating over and over that they never thought they would ever see in their lifetime. I finally realize that I'd like to be this man, or at least model my virtues after his, to treat life, its hardships and its joys, just as he does. This guy is officially my role model. As he is to probably billions of others.

So as the crowds now chant, and a man silently reflects in St John's for an hour before he undertakes his greatest task, we should all realize that this is just the launching of on of the greatest historic journeys we shall ever notice. It may be America, but now, of all times, it should be all about the future of everyone and how we progress into the future. We do not know how well it might turn out, or rather how un-well. But for this moment at least, we can hope, and dream big.