"Every generation must discover it's mission; fulfill it or betray it."

"The times they are a-changin.'"

Anybody would find it hard to describe how they felt on Tuesday as they watched the results come in. And I'm certainly no exception. I squeezed myself into a bar on my campus that was packed wall-to-wall with young people who kept pouring in as the night unfolded.

Every state that Barack Obama won was punctuated through loud cheers, beers clanging and hugs passing around. But the elation that was building around us was all in anticipation of that moment that inevitably arrived.

The bar erupted as McCain conceded the election. Cheek-to-cheek smiles spread across everybody's faces. Then, not long after, the bar hushed from an explosive din to an attentive silence as the president-elect delivered his speech to the hundreds-of-thousands gathered at Chicago's Grant Park.

I cried so hard. I'll admit it (you probably did too!) The sight was overwhelming more than I could imagine. Shoulder-to-shoulder students were washed over by the heaviness of the moment. America's homogenous 232 year-old Presidential lineage shattered. This marks the beginning of the end of eight years wracked with war, corruption and financial collapse, at least, and at most, the beginning of a wonderful window of opportunity and hope. I opened my eyes and could tell I wasn't the only one.

If you asked me four years ago if this moment would've come in my lifetime, I'd 've responded with a near definitive "No." (Call me a cynic, perhaps?) "How did this happen?" I asked to myself as I examined the faces of the still crowd around me listening to the speech. The room was silent as the president-elect answered.

This historic moment, brought to you by "the young people." The room flared up again celebrating our success. It was the young people who "rejected the myth" of our "generation's apathy" and worked to make this change.

The headlines across America are reading "Young voters shake things up," or "18-29 Year-Old Voters Propel Obama to Victory." The papers and pundits are hailing young people as well as blacks, Latinos and women. We are the ones who made history. We're the ones writing this story.

This was our moment, and we took hold of it. But more importantly this is still our moment. We voted for change, and now we can make it. "This victory alone is not the change we seek," he said "It is only the chance for us to make that change."

A global ecological crisis, poverty and two wars still hang in the future in front of us. But can anybody deny us our ability to overcome monumental challenges now?

Young folks stood up on Tuesday in a coalition of the most vulnerable people in the country and took action for change against some pretty monumental odds. It is that coalition that is going to build this change; green pathways out of poverty and renewable energy, peace and economic justice, affordable education and healthcare.

We poured onto the streets of Brooklyn, the streets of Washington D.C., and in the streets of my hometown of Detroit (see below). We partied for the change we made, but also for the change that is long over due.

"This is your victory."

Aaron is a student at Wayne State University in Detroit where he studies History and Peace & Conflict. He serves on the National Council of the Student Environmental Action Coalition and can be reached at aaron@seac.org