My roommate, Mariah, and I were late—we were running down G Street [in Northwest D.C.] to meet my parents, who had been waiting to drive us to my dad’s office on Capitol Hill.

Initially, my four roommates and I were slated to spend the night there, wake up at a leisurely hour, and then stroll to the National Mall four blocks away in time for Barack Obama’s inauguration at noon. Of course, this plan grossly underestimated the impact of 1.8 million people on the Mall. Instead, our “stroll” became a two-hour trek, over the freeway, past the Purple Tunnel of Doom, climbing barriers, and getting crushed in the masses. But we had our moments: every now and then, someone would stand on a wall and yell “Give me an ‘O’” and the crowd would respond with a rousing “Ooooooooooo.” Or a nice elderly woman would move aside to give me a better view of the Jumbotron. Or the fat guy squishing me against a hot dog stand would turn around and compliment me on my four Obama buttons. I couldn’t imagine a nicer mob.

It was a trip of glimpses. We climbed on each others’ toes to glimpse Beyoncé through binoculars at the Lincoln Memorial We Are One concert. We glimpsed Obama’s official portrait in the packed lobby of the National Portrait Gallery. We glimpsed Bush’s helicopter fly over the crowd as he departed from the District. We glimpsed the greatest political leaders in America over the tops of people’s hats on a screen at the Mall. But the most exciting glimpse of all happened the night before the inauguration, when Mariah and I ran down G Street.

We were held up by police at a corner, and while we bounced on our toes impatiently, a motorcade turned past us. Inside a black Escalade sat the new first family. They waved. We waved. And as the car drove onwards, bound for the Miley Cyrus concert, everyone on the corner hugged each other in shock, laughing and crying and screaming, “I can’t believe it!”

Some people criticize Obama for being a celebrity politician, but nothing has excited me this much since I was 11 years old and the Spice Girls came to town. And I have to say, that gives me hope.