A year to the day today that candidate Barack Obama became President Elect Barack Obama. My how things change within a year. 

While a majority of the world watched with their breath held, my fellow Americans by TV sides to watch poll returns - I was awake at 4 a.m. huddled on a cold kitchen floor in a Soviet era home hitting the refresh button and waiting for my dialup to slowly give me the electoral returns. As things kept looking better and better, I was still too scared/anxious/nervous to call it a victory for Obama after the tears I shed watching John Kerry's concession speech in 2004, a close election that I had put lots of volunteering time into. When the election was officially called for Obama, tears found their way to my face again, but this time of happiness and pride in being an American as I got calls from the States and other volunteers telling me that it really was a brand new day in America.

At the time I was still living my life as an English teacher in a large village on the Caspian Sea serving in the Peace Corps. And let me tell you, even on the other side of the world the election was as nerve wracking as the energy in America. 

During the election, I kept up with the campaigns as best I could when I had access to the internet by reading news stories and blogs online. I had the good fortune of being in the capitol during the DNC and the hotel us PCVs were staying at during the time had CNN and showed the positively electrifying speeches by John Kerry, Senator Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and of course, candidate Barack Obama. I just kept thinking to myself that perhaps I should leave my service early and return home to work on the campaign, Obama was an incredibly charismatic candidate even to non-voting constituents! (more thoughts on how American policy affects the rest of the world later)

I would be asked by taxi drivers what I thought about the election and careful in my answers since an out of context comment Obama had made incensed a national hatred - even though McCain/conservatives would do something about a neighboring country that would surely cause a refugee situation in my host country if a war had broken out, and they definitely don't have the infrastructure to support refugee services. But for the most part, people in the (secular) Muslim country of my service seemed to endorse Obama as much as they could be concerned with a foreign election. There were a few interesting sidebars with the locals about the "novelty" of the idea of a female president in a country with practically no women's rights, sadly. 

A year later and after returning to America, I moved to DC as an RPCV where I am now engaging in the demoralizing process of finding a job in the worse economic situation in decades and competing with other 20somethings (or 30somethings) who now see public service as sexy and glamorous, all courtesy of Barack Obama and his campaign.

While it makes job searching tough, this shift in values and American civic culture is not much of a downside if it means meaningful legislation, inspired generations and stronger, more vibrant communities - not to mention the fiercest first lady the White House will ever see (FLOTUS, I am such a huge fan). If this is the change Obama was talking about from the campaign trail, I think I know who I'm voting for in 2012.