Despite snow, students find way to celebrate Inauguration

Despite class and campus event cancellations, snowy weather and icy roads, ECU students still managed to celebrate the swearing in of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, on Tuesday.

Some curled up on their couches to watch the swearing in of the country's first African-American president, while some braved the weather to watch the Inauguration first-hand in Washington, D.C.

Junior communications major Kyndall Peele was supposed to attend the Inauguration events sponsored by the university's Office of Institutional Diversity on Tuesday--where she is a student assistant-but those events were cancelled because of the inclement weather. Instead, she gathered some close friends together and celebrated at her apartment in Greenville.

"Seeing that I was snowed in, I had a little Inauguration get together," Peele said. "My friends came over and we had a breakfast celebration at my house. When [Obama] said his oath we all cheered and we were all excited and we all talked about how that feeling was and what it means as a minority and as a nation."

Student Melissa Hege, who worked as the ECU field organizer for Obama's campaign in Greenville, was in the nation's capital on Tuesday when Obama took his oath of office.

"It was kind of surreal [and] it was hard to believe," Hege said. "It kind of brings a tear to your eyes. There were people everywhere, it was just insane, and it was good to be in an environment that was 150 percent for Obama. It was hard not to inspired by the events of the day, it was history."

Both Peele and Hege were impacted by this historic Inauguration, whether they were in Greenville or Washington, D.C.

Peele said the Inauguration ceremony was a defining moment in her life where she thought of the struggles that African-Americans have endured to get to this point.

"It was very overwhelming-I was happy and crying," Peele said. "It was one of those moments where you think of everything your parents and grandparents went through."

Peele says that she and her friends decided they would ban together to give back to their community, a message that Obama reiterated throughout the numerous Inaugural events on Tuesday, and a message she says her grandparents-who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-instilled in her since she was a child.

"We [my friends and I] decided that once a month we were going to volunteer together and contribute back to our community," she said.

Inauguration celebrations will continue this weekend with a party in Mendenhall on Saturday. The event is co-sponsored by Word of Mouth, ECU's first poetry organization, and Senoj, a group of ECU students on campus that help create events for students.

Marcel Jones, the CEO of Senoj, says that the will give students a chance to celebrate the swearing in of a new president.

"We decided to give students the opportunity to celebrate the inauguration because many students were unable to go to attend the Inauguration because of the weather, finances or class schedules," Jones, a sophomore business administration and marketing major, said. "We wanted to give students a safe environment to celebrate this event in history and to celebrate the new semester. [Also], this event is on-campus so it's a hop. skip and a jump away for students."

Jones says that he was one of those students who couldn't make it to Washington, D.C. to witness the Obama's Inauguration live. Instead, he did what many others did, gathered with close friends and relatives to watch the event on television.

"I was kind of snowed in, [so] I was kicking back with friends and family watching it on TV," Jones said.

Although he was stuck inside because of the snow, Jones said that the Inauguration still had profound meaning to him.

"Because I am African-American, this Inauguration means that there's no excuse for me to not meet my full potential to make myself better, my community better and my life better. This shows me that I should reach inside myself and reach my fulfill my full potential."

This writer can be contacted at editor@theeastcarolinian.com.