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Michele Ozer, 17
 On the day of President Obama’s speech the security line outside my high school was two blocks long. This day, I knew, would be different than all others. It was Obama day.
After having my bookbag and lunch searched by Secret Service officers and going through massive metal detectors, I walked to my homeroom with a nervous pit in my stomach.
Out of the 1,200 students in my school, only 600 could fit into our tiny auditorium. The Secret Service had chosen homerooms at random in order to decide who could attend the event. Before I even made it to my classroom, my friend greeted me at the door.
“We’re going to see Obama!” she exclaimed. I was going to see the President speak.
Four hours and six classes later, I was three rows from the stage of my auditorium. It was an hour wait before the President was going to speak. Harsh stage lights shone brightly onto the audience, and many sweated through the suits and dresses put on just for the occasion. Still, it was oddly the shortest hour I had ever sat through. Clutching my camera, I snapped pictures of the stage, the Secret Service and my friends.
And then, finally, after a brief introduction by our student government President, he was there. The man I had spent two years campaigning for. Wearing his button proudly, I watched as he spoke right before my eyes. His message?
Work hard, know that you can take on any challenge, embrace each other’s differences, and never give up on your goals. He spoke to us as if he were our friend, even telling anecdotes of how his mother used to yell at him for “goofing off.” He spoke to us directly. His speech was made for the whole country, but he made us feel like he was only talking to us.
Huizhong Wu, 16
A few days prior to the speech I was working on an assignment for my Literature class when my mom said, in her native Chinese, “President Obama is coming to your school. I just saw it on the news.” I thought it wasn’t true, that maybe something had been lost in translation.
However, two hours later I was on Facebook and my newsfeed was bombarded with “Obama is coming!” statuses. And then, I realized it was true!
At first I was ecstatic. But dread set-in as soon as I realized not all of us could possibly fit in the auditorium. I was lucky enough to get into the press area at the very back, due to the fact that I worked on the school paper. Yet my homeroom was not so lucky. Our class had not been selected to go see the president. They would watch the speech on television in a classroom down the hall.
A few hours later I was sitting inside the press area. I must admit, it was pretty cool. I sat with a number of local journalists from Philadelphia as we waited for President Obama to arrive. An hour later he did. And the auditorium erupted into cheers and screams. I couldn’t see him very well, but I heard him speak.
It was a good speech, though I’ve heard the same advice he gave--work hard, be responsible, treat others with kindness--my entire life. Though the experience was exciting, nothing pivotal changed for me that day.
But I’m extremely grateful for a chance to hear the President speak. I am also grateful for the chance to see this event from a journalist’s point of view. And, mostly, I’m grateful that I go to a great school and receive a great education. That is far more valuable than anything else, even a speech by the President of the United States.
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Joplin was able to rise from the ashes because of help from everyone. And I am eternally grateful to anyone who made that possible.
