The 2008 U.S. Presidential election was the first opportunity my teen daughter had to exercise her right to vote.  She had been accompanying me to the voting booth since she was a toddler.  It was important for me to take her so that she could see me taking seriously my own to right to vote.

I don’t think during those early years she really understood the significance of going to our local school to fill in our ballots, but this year, her 18th year she not only understood it she really felt the power of her vote.

On November 4, when the new President-elect for the U.S. was announced I called her quickly on her cell phone.  There was pandemonium at her residence hall during the midnight hour of that unbelievable evening.

She quickly told me that there were hundreds and hundreds of students running and screaming with joy outside at the news that Sen. Barack Obama had been elected the next President of the United States.  At that moment she felt the importance and effect of the vote she had cast a few weeks ago.

What I took from her comments and the reactions of the thousands of students on her campus, not just on election night but in the weeks leading up to it, was that this generation of x Box users was coming of age.

I listened to conversations in my own children’s circles and I’ve read the commentary in media across the country and I have to say that I think this generation – the Millennials – believe that they can have an impact on the direction of their country and through their vote I’d say they did.

Of course not everyone voted for President-elect Obama and those 60 million votes for Sen. McCain are just as important in this process.  The good thing is those 60 million voters care about their country and the more important thing is that their concerns and priorities will be given every bit of consideration as those votes from the majority who elected Mr. Obama.

That’s the promise we got from both candidates and I look forward to seeing that realized.

Experiencing this election through the eyes of my daughter, for the first time ever, I find I’m fixated on how this election has served as a positive influence on the shaping of the mindset of this generation.

It feels like this is the first time, in a long time, that the election was more about the future of a united nation and less about the few special interests of the most powerful.  My daughter and her friends truly feel a sense of empowerment and I’m grateful for that.

I didn’t experience that sense of urgency and importance about my role in the world during my early years in college.  We were the generation that one professor called the most “self-centered” he’d ever seen (the greedy 80’s).  We cared about our marks and employment in hot centers of commerce. I’m generalizing but not overly so.

I do remember my friends and I feeling so disheartened at his statements, but at the same time we couldn’t help but to agree.  We just did not feel as impassioned about our impact on problems in the world as those who had come before us in the 70’s and 60’s.

Environmental advocacy, living a green lifestyle, revitalizing our urban cores, protecting pristine lands, local and international volunteer service and community building–these are just a few of the priorities that our young people feel passionate about today and that gives me such hope.

Here we have a generation showing signs that their not only ready but commited to addressing the multitude of challenges that we’ve left for them.  Maybe we (boomer/post boomer generation) did in fact do a few things right.