Dreams From My Father: Change We Can Believe In

In 1981 Ronald Regan had just become president; the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, NASA released their first space shuttle and a Man decided it was time for his life to change. In Los Angeles where the sun had presumably been shining and the city rejoiced in response to the dodger’s elite performance the man began to pack his bags and prepare to leave. He left his bed, then his room, and finally the door, he had given himself to the world. Across different time-zones, climates, and cultures the man traveled his heart and brain ruthlessly clashed the entire trip until he reached the destination. One foot followed the other forcefully planted in the soil of Manhattan, New York. With nowhere to go or sleep he found refuge in an alley he slept until the sun rose.

While this may be two or three days summarized in 165 words it all started with a change. A need for change brought a Man all the way from California to New York which coincidentally played a major role in his 2008 campaign; “Change We Can Believe In”-this man was Barack Obama. In “Dreams from My Father,” Mr. Obama uses self-reflection to recollect a time where the terms ‘bum’ and ‘loafer’ would describe his attitude towards his studies before making ‘the change’, in fact in high school Mr. Obama stated he was one who had been indifferent to his studies. Obama had been attending Occidental college in Los Angeles and decided to transfer somewhere that offered more diversity in an urban setting, somewhere where he would be challenged and grow. That school was Columbia University, and the rest is