Shannon McDonald

When administrators at Temple University, where I just started my final semester of college, found out I was going to President Obama’s inauguration, they asked me to write something for them. The following piece was featured in Temple Times’ Temple Today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — I went to the inauguration as a journalist, and while I can’t say for sure, I think if I was pursuing some other profession, I would not have gone.

It almost didn’t happen. I was first denied press credentials on the grounds that The Temple News is too irrelevant to the event. By sheer luck, I obtained credentials from a small media group, but then had them revoked because too many media outlets were already set to flood the National Mall. Amtrak ticket prices for the weekend of the inauguration were astronomical, so I turned to the Chinatown Bus. Three hours, one rest top and a Metro ride later, I made it to Washington, D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, home of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. Read more »