St. Mary’s student blogs from the Obama inauguration

St. Mary’s High School senior Joe Gill is in Washington, D.C., for the presidential inauguration as part of the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference. He will be blogging for The Item while he is there. This is his first report:I arrived in Washington, D.C., at 4 p.m. Saturday. After a brief registration period and dinner, the scholars and I attended a presentation by two speakers at the University of Maryland. The speakers were author Doris Kearns Goodwin and Lisa Ling, journalist and host of National Geographic Explorer. After these two interesting presentations I went to the hotel and met my roommate, Zach, from Daphne, Ala.After a good night’s sleep and hearty breakfast we went back to the University of Maryland and heard from Gen. Colin Powell and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Gen. Powell told us we should not change our character based on what other people expect us to be and that to succeed we must show perseverance during tough times.I found Archbishop Tutu’s speech to be very fascinating. He told us that we are all special people made uniquely by God, that we should reach for the stars, and to strive to be the best we can be.The quote that had the most meaning to me was when Archbishop Tutu told us, “The world is in very good, very compassionate, very caring hands ? the world is in your hands.” To me, this means that we are the future. My generation will soon become the adults of the world and we must act on this opportunity because we can make a difference.After those presentations we quickly ate lunch and drove to the National Mall to witness the start of the inaugural celebration. Stars such as Bruce Springsteen, U2, Beyonce, James Taylor, John Mellencamp and Mary J. Blige performed for an excited crowd. Speakers included Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks. The highlight was when President-elect Obama addressed the crowd. I have never felt such a sense of encouragement and excitement as I did today. As President-elect Obama finished his speech, the crowd broke into a chant of “Obama,” proving America is ready for the change Obama has promised.