America can finally take a big sigh of relief.
An election that has taken up two years of our lives ended Tuesday night, and I was more than ready for it to be done.
Regardless of which candidate was elected -- in case you didn't know, Democrat Barack Obama won -- I was looking forward to a few weeks of not writing any political columns. I'm ready to get the next leader in the Oval Office to get to work and for the rest of us to sit back and take stock of the events that have unfolded, leading to Tuesday night's historic results.
In the past two years, much has changed. I went from being a Penn State sophomore to a senior. Nittany Lions football went from lackluster and disappointing to making a run for the national championship. Britney Spears shaved her head, went to court and recorded a No. 1 single. And American voters elected the first black president.
This election was exciting and historic, the kind of event we will be telling our grandchildren about someday. I am thrilled that the Penn State campus was transformed into a hive of political activity. The big names dropped by to speak, workers registered a record-breaking number of voters and the youth vote finally started to be noticed.
But that excitement can be exhausting. At some point about a month ago, I was ready for it all to be over.
No more campaign workers talking to me on the street. No more digging through a pile of propaganda deposited outside my apartment door overnight. No more struggling to find news on any other issue besides Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's hairstyle.
In every way, this election fulfilled itself as a Cinderella story. The first-term senator with the odd name found his way into the hearts of American voters and persuaded them that he was the right answer for change. His method of campaigning was a change from previous presidential elections in many ways.
But if I ever have a chat with the new president-elect, I'd ask him to cut down the length of his campaign next time. Obama announced his run for presidency in Springfield, Ill., on Feb. 10, 2007 -- a year and a half ago. So at some point in the past year, I became numb to the election.
I'm sure most people involved in the campaigns woke up Wednesday morning a little hung over, not from celebratory or consolatory champagne but coming down off a political high that has lasted two years. What now?
It may be cliché, but it really is time to look to the future.
For me, that's hopefully a trip to Miami for the BCS championship (knock on wood). For people who sacrificed time, money and resources to the campaigns, it's how they will use the passion they brought to the candidate to other causes. For our new president-elect, it's how to fix the country that is falling apart at the seams.
Jessica Turnbull is a senior majoring in journalism and the Collegian's Friday columnist. Her e-mail is jlt5044@psu.edu.
