I was always, from my earliest days, what you would call an "underachiever": never really applied myself at school, never really applied myself much to the type of the things that society in general considered important; simply because, I thought, that it wasn't worth it.
However, after some years I realized that the reason why I didn't apply myself to such things was because I didn't think I had the wherewithal to achieve it; and somewhere down the line, I understood that if you don't aim high, then you never achieve anything.
And so, I went back to school, figuring I would shoot for the highest thing I could, which was getting accepted to a great university out of junior college.
Well, I got accepted to the university I wanted, after a lot of hard work and blood sweat and tears; I found that I was the only one surprised at this outcome, because I guess my family and friends always knew I could do it, if I ever just decided to put in the effort.
After I got into this university, I decided to set my sights even higher, to go to graduate school and get a PhD in biology at the best university I could think of; and guess what? I achieved that too, again to my surprise.
After I got my graduate degree, I began to dream big again, and imagine myself a tenure-track professor at a prestigious institution, where I would have the freedom to pursue the research I was interested in--a big-time PI finally and at last, with my very own lab: that is what I wanted.
I'm still not there, but I've made steps to further reaching my goal. However, in the last few days I've come to understand that even if I never quite reach that mark, I would have never come remotely close to it if I hadn't wished big, and aimed for the stars.
If I hadn't aimed for the stars, I perhaps even now would still be stuck at the dead-end job I had before I went back to school; I perhaps would not have even achieved my Bachelor's, nor even got accepted at the school I wanted to go to.
What is the point of my saying all this? Well. The point is that I think the same thing applies to how we demand greatness in our leaders.
When we GOTV'd and donated to Obama's campaign, we were shooting for the stars; after Obama got elected and after he was sworn in, we still wished for him to achieve the very best a President can be.
The point is that we must continue to hold to him the highest standard that we can, so that when he falls below our expectation (which he no doubt will, and has, for many of us), it will still be much higher than what we would have gotten, had we not dared to dream, and dared reach for the very best which our country, and our President, has to offer.
I hope what I'm trying to say makes sense.
Thanks for reading.