There's a reason they say going to an inauguration is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Well, there are a few reasons actually.
First off, getting tickets is incredibly difficult. I found out I was going to D.C. less than a week after President Barack Obama (go a head, say it again, it feels awesome) was elected. I didn't find out I had a ticket until about two weeks before I left. I had to write to almost every politician in Ohio, Sen. Dick Durbin, soon-to-be former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and my home district's representative Rep. Mark Kirk. In the end House Minority Leader, Rep. John Boehner was able to secure me a ticket.
Not only was getting a ticket hard to do, but I lucked out by having a place to stay. My cousin Jenni was able to take me in during the week at her apartment in D.C.'s Penn Quarter neighborhood. I had heard stories of people renting out their dorm rooms to strangers for $400 a night as well as stories of people paying $5,000 to sleep on a couch. Not a sofa bed, not a futon, just a plain old couch.
Along with finding a place to stay, tickets to D.C. were at all-time highs. I was able to use my dad's sky-miles to knock my ticket price down to $5 (the best $5 I've ever spent). When I was looking at first though, the cheapest flight was $300 and the most expensive coach ticket was more than $1,000.
Not only is it an expensive trip, but it's definitely an exhausting one. Let's take a look at my inauguration day. I woke up a 6:00 a.m. to people partying on D Street, right outside Jenni's building. From there, I dressed, talked with Jenni and Craig about our plans for the day (their seats were in a different section than mine) and headed to the Metro, Washington's subway system, to quickly get to the security lines for the Blue ticket section.
Right away I ran into trouble. First, the streets were so jam-packed, I had to go through an ally just to get to the street I needed to take to the Gallery Place Metro station.
Once I got into the station, things seemed to calm down for a bit. I only had to go one stop before changing lines, but the train was empty enough for me to get a seat (a rarity on busy days). Once I got to the Metro Center stop though, reality hit-hard. You could barely move without coming close to getting pushed into the tracks (something that happened at least once on inauguration day). People were packed into cars like sardines. One woman with at the inauguration told me that at one time, people were putting so much pressure on the train's doors, the doors wouldn't close.
I boarded a train quickly and headed off to my planned destination. I had to adjust my route and get off at Capitol South due to overcrowding at other stops.
Unfortunately, Capitol South isn't exactly close to where those of us with Blue tickets needed to get in. I got off the train, moved my way through an incredibly crowded station, up an over-crowded, and stalled, escalator and toward what I thought would be multiple entrances for the Blue tickets. Boy, was I wrong.
Instead I walked about a block and was halted by the biggest line I've ever waited in. Everyone in this line (as well as a few other lines) needed to get through ONE entrance to the security checkpoint. That's right, 10,000 people and one entrance. Ridiculous.
After waiting in line for three hours, I was ready to call it quits and head back, but instead I walked toward the front of the line and joined a group of line jumpers (shame on me, I know). After hopping a guardrail I was promptly squished against a series of other guardrails until I was able to file through the entrance and into the security checkpoint.
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From there I looked for a place to stand. As I was looking for a ledge to stand on, I was led to a broken fence that separated the Blue and Orange sections. I quickly went over the downed fence and settled in amongst the masses just as Vice President Joe Biden was about to be sworn in.
As President Obama was sworn in, the crowd went nuts. The inauguration became the country's biggest block-party. People were dancing, singing, crying and shouting. Everyone knew they were witnessing history.
Getting out of Capitol Hill, though, was a bit of a problem. I was led the wrong way on my way out and was forced to go through a huge crowd of people (in which I was barely able to move) not once, but twice. People were going down left and right due to leg cramps, fainting or merely being pushed to the ground by those around them. The Metro was pretty much shut down, cops had no idea where to send people and the parade route trapped huge groups of people in the Mall (myself included). It took me nearly four hours, but I finally made it back to the apartment.
Compared to others though, I had it easy. Miami sophomore Ben Lockshin, who came to D.C. with a group of the College Democrats, was turned back at the gate even though he had a valid ticket for the Purple section.
"We got to the gate around 7 in the morning, and cop told us to go to the Third Street tunnel," Lockshin told me later while he was making the drive back to Oxford from D.C. "At that point, (the line) was two-thirds of the way into the tunnel and it snaked all the way around. We waited in line there for hours and it was moving very slowly. We thought we'd just wait it out in there. At about 9:45, my friend said he'd go check it out outside. He gave me a call saying there was a mob at First and D streets. He eventually pushed his way through. Another friend and I stayed in line, but once we got out of the tunnel it was just chaos. We got the gate a little bit after 11, there were a couple thousand people just standing there en masse, but no one was being let in. Eventually we talked to a police officer, who told us that they stopped letting people in. From there we just decided to go to a hotel and watch his speech on TV."
David Miller, who also traveled to the inauguration with the College Democrats, had a bit of a better experience than Lockshin.
"I was just walking around," Miller said. "I had an Orange section ticket, and was walking around the section. Jessica Alba was sitting in the front row in a group of chairs in front of us. There wasn't anyone around her, so I walked up to her and said hi. I had six or seven Obama buttons on, and she said something about it. I asked her if she wanted one and she said sure so I gave her one, took a picture with her and left."
While I didn't have quite the same experiences as either Lockshin or Miller, I can definitely say that my inauguration experience was one that will probably never be topped. Besides bumping elbows with Tony Dungy, seeing someone who looked a lot like the Daily Show's John Oliver (I never did have the courage to ask him), and getting on Japanese TV while waiting in line for my ticket, I witnessed history. And while others were willing to pay $5,000 to do the same, I have to say that my trip to D.C. this past week was truly priceless.
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