Realizing that you're losing President Barack Obama is like being peacefully asleep and suddenly being jerked awake with a gasp. And you're just sitting there, too shaken to go back to sleep and too tired to move. It's a paralyzing fear.
President Obama, love him or hate him, made history, and since his first inauguration in January 2009, he's made significant strides in turning America around. Before him, we were under President George W. Bush's reign of terror and ignorance, so honestly, there was nowhere else to go but up.
Obama has been the president of the people. On his very first full day, he froze White House salaries for the duration of the Great Recession. On the first day of any job, your eyes are glazed over from all the paperwork and shaking the hands of your new co-workers; but Obama used this time to make change. And throughout his presidency, he continued to do so.
He gave us the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), which provides health insurance for 20 million Americans; he ended the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing LGBT servicemen and servicewomen to serve proudly and openly; under his watch, same-sex marriage became legal, because love is love is love is love; he implemented the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers; and he granted more than 1,000 pardons for thousands of nonviolent drug offenders—among many, many other things.
In eight years, Obama proved to be more than the coolest president ever (and the most handsome); he showed the world that he could be the change and made powerful strides in doing so. In short, we're going to miss him. And we're not alone.
Check out this beautiful farewell to President Obama, featuring a lot of your favorite celebrities: