by Christiopher Basting

Fulbright grantee 2009/2010 at the University of Maryland at College Park

One of my most exciting events in the United States of America so far has probably been President Obama’s health care rally. It took place at my host university, the University of Maryland at College Park. I’m a German Applied Mathematics major, currently studying one year abroad as a Fulbright grantee.

The rally took place on September 17th 2009 in the University’s basketball arena, the Comcast Center. At this time I had been in the United States of America for exactly one month. Since we, some friends and I, expected it to be very crowded, we decided to queue up very early – at 5:30 am – even though the rally was scheduled to start at 11:00 am. Very tired, but in front of the queue, we were able to get seats as close as possible (without a ticket) to the President’s podium. Suddenly, a woman appeared and asked us whether we wanted tickets for the front rows. Of course we accepted and thus moved some more rows forward. Now we were really right behind the President’s podium.

Happy about our seats, we waited very excited. I had been to several football games by that time, which were always very crowded, but the atmosphere was more excited and intense than what I had seen there.  And then, the President of the United States of America arrived – and an earsplitting roar greeted Barack Obama.

In his speech, he basically tried to convince us, the students, to support his health care reform. However, most of the people there were probably already convinced, measured by the overwhelmingly friendly greeting.

The President: Fired up?
Audience: Fired up!
The President: Ready to go?
Audience: Ready to go!
The President: Let’s go change the world everybody.

That was how he finished his speech, after telling the story of how he got to that slogan. Now the time was ready – I went as fast as possible all the way down to the barrier, which the President would have to pass on his way back. And he passed it. And he shook my hand. And I was happy, behaving like a teenager cheering for a pop star.

Unfortunately, not all of my friends were able to shake Obama’s hand, but we all were at least very close to him and had an unforgettable experience.