A change of perspective

The US Presidential Election certainly didn’t disappoint. Regardless of our denomination, it’s hard to placate the significance. But more important to my writing, having been outside of the country during the election, I gained an interesting perspective that is difficult to put into words.

The day of the election I woke up and began watched Bloomberg TV (A business news channel and one of the few channels in English). They had dedicated a large amount of time to the reactions of different governments around the world and what the presidential election will mean to relations in the future.

I was shocked. I couldn’t remember the last time I had heard of or even cared about the election of officials of another country. Sure I know a couple political leaders, but I don’t remember watching their election process or counting the blue and red states in their country.

In the weeks prior I was asked many times by my fellow exchange students which candidate I would be voting for. A couple of my professors couldn’t resist the same question. And yet I couldn’t think of an international election I was interested in, much less having questions for my fellow exchange students and professors.

I attribute this dichotomy, not to my lack of interest in global politics, but rather to the sheer importance of US leadership around the globe. Certainly I have long known my countries importance to the world, but to the exacting degree – to a higher level of realization and consciousness – to which I know it now, I had not.


Again, when a perspective is gained, when the fog begins to lift and your horizon expands, even to the slightest degree, it is an astonishing experience, difficult to put into words.