The first call I made was to my mom. A mixture of excitement and some tears came through the phone from her after the speech Obama gave was over. “Did you ever think this could happen?” I asked. “Not in my lifetime” she replied.

Not in my lifetime. I haven’t lived the life she or my father has but I had heard some stories about my dad going to a segregated school and my mom going to a non-segregated school a few years later in the town where I grew up. I can only imagine how tough life was during those times, how options were limited and how something like last nights election could move people like my mother to tears. I can only imagine the emotions my grandmother experienced watching the election and I wished that I could have been there in the moment with them both.

I look forward to talking to my parents and my grandmother over the next few days to take in the magnitude of the election from their point of view. They’ve lived through some of the ugliness in our nations history and I’m overjoyed that they’ve had the opportunity to see this in their lifetime.