I have recently been going through this stage of 'what now'.  As an African American woman, I feel as though now I need to do more, be more, accomplish more, in my life.  I feel like I am held to higher standard now.  Since the election, I find myself sitting and wondering what I am going to do with my life?  How can accomplish more?  How can I positively impact my community more? Where do I see myself in 5, 10, or 20 years?  It's like this campaign and the powerful and historic result of it, has become an awakening to me and many of my friends that I have talked to, causing us to do this exhaustive review of our lives and form a plan of action for fulfilling our destiny and reaching our highest goals knowing now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are actually empowered to do so.
 
The thing about it is, my friends and I are not underachievers.  Most of us Engineers (successfully navigating through a white male dominated field), with graduate degrees, active in our communities.  Many see us as successful women but since the election we have been discussing our lives and the choices we have made and will make in the future as if perhaps our lives may have been different if we truly believed a long time ago that people that looked like us could be President.

I grew up being told and constantly telling myself that anything is possible, that I could do anything I put my mind to.  It was not until November 4, 2008 at 11:00pm while standing in Grant Park in Chicago, IL, that I truly believed it.