This month we see America’s 44th president leave office. Since launching his election campaign in 2008 to the moment he handed over the presidency in 2017, Obama has displayed a level of charisma, ambition and integrity rarely found in western politics. But as with most world leaders, his detractors are fierce and plentiful in number.
Regardless of how history choses to remember Obama’s time in office, now is an opportune time to look back at the first African American man who became president of the USA.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realise their full potential.
Reject the notion we’re surrounded by forces we cannot control. You’ve never had better tools to make a difference, to forge a better UK, a better Europe, a better world.
Seek out people who don’t agree with you. It will teach you to compromise. It will also help you if you get married.
