On Jan. 16, senior Dani Langness flew to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Obama. While staying there for a week, Langness traveled with a student ambassador leadership program, People to People International, and not only attended the historic inauguration, but also visited many local attractions in Washington.

FHNtoday’s Tyler Kirk sat down with Langness so that she could share her experience.

How’d you get the opportunity to go to D.C.?

I was asked by a couple groups, but I went with People to People International, which is a leadership program that I’ve traveled with before.

Did you meet anyone interesting on your trip?

We didn’t meet anyone related to Obama or anyone in his cabinet, but we met Mary Jean Eisenhower, who is President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s grand-daughter. She gave us history of the inaugurations, so you could see the differences between past inaugurations and this one. And we got to meet journalist and author, Kenneth T. Walsh. He talked about Obama, and he gave us information from a reporter’s point of view.

Did any part of your trip not go as planned?

Everything with the inauguration went fine, but you have to flexible when you’re there. The most frustrating thing happened with the program that I traveled with. They promised us that we were going to do all this stuff, but we didn’t do a whole lot. But we had to flexible because some of the roads we had to take to get places were closed down because of the inauguration. But we were supposed to go to the White House and go inside, but we weren’t allowed to for an unknown reason. And we were supposed to go to the Youth Ball, which was one of the 20 that Obama was supposed to be at, and we were told that we were going to be able to see Obama and get close to him. But we didn’t even come close. But the group we went with had 2,500 kids alone, from sixth to twelfth graders, and we were scattered between seven hotels. But even when we got frustrated, we found something good about being there; you didn’t want to ruin that moment with your frustration.

What was the most memorable part of your trip besides the inauguration?

My favorite part was going to all the museums, and my favorite museum was the Newseum. When everyone heard about it, we all thought it was going to be really dumb. But it was actually really cool. My favorite part was the 9/11 section. They had the needle of the North tower, and they had the front page of every newspaper around the world that that day affected. It was very emotional seeing everything. There were documentaries on it that you could watch. There was a little area for the photographer who died taking pictures of it. His last shot was of the North tower coming down. Even just watching the people that were involved, you couldn’t help but get emotional. I was in fifth grade when this happened, and I had no idea what the twin towers were, but seeing history like that is so emotional. It gave me chills.

What were you feeling witnessing the inauguration?

Coming from the Republican side of things, going to see a Democratic president was very different for me. The whole crowd was kind of unified. Being around everyone for the same cause, it didn’t really matter if you were black or white or Republican or Democratic, whatever you were, you were there for the same cause and it was amazing. It definitely changed my views on our President. I didn’t really have anything on him in the first place, but it gave me better knowledge on him.

Did anything humorous happen while you were at the inauguration?

Well it was funny watching the reaction of the crowd change when people that they didn’t like came out of the White House.

Like Bush?

Yes, like Bush (laughs). All the important people came out, and when Bush came through, everyone was chanting, “Lock him up.” It was the whole crowd. And what really blew my mind was when the Obama girls came out right before Bush, everyone was saying how cute they were and how cute of a family they were. They loved them. And then Bush came out and the entire crowd went silent. So you definitely knew that nobody liked Bush and they just wanted him gone.

How do you think being able to attend the most memorable inauguration ever will affect your life in the future?

I get to tell my children and my grand-children that I was there and got to witness that. It’s not something that’s ever going to happen to this magnitude again. Even when we have our first female president, it won’t be as big of a deal as this. I mean, yeah, women are still treated differently than men, and once a woman becomes president things are going to change a lot. But an African-American coming in and stepping up and being the president of our nation, that crazy for what all of African-Americans have been through in the past. It’s crazy.

At the inauguration, how close were you to Obama? Close enough to see him?

I was as close as you could get without having tickets. But even if you had tickets, you weren’t very close, because he looked like an ant. We saw him on jumbo-trons, so you still felt like you were up close. The people with ticketed seats got to sit on chairs, but they didn’t have the huge TVs. They were pretty much just listening, they couldn’t really see him.

How did all the emotions of the people around you affect how you felt while watching the inauguration?

When that many people are excited, you can’t help but get excited and emotional. My friend Whitney started crying, she was so touched I guess. You couldn’t help but be with the crowd; you did what the crowd did. They were all together, yelling and waving their American flags.

What was the mix of ages in the crowd?

There were all ages. There were little kids there because their parents wanted them to be there for a part of history. There were teenagers, there were older people. It was good to know that everyone could come together for a common cause. Things have changed a lot.

It’s obvious that for the United States, this was a huge deal – being able to watch the inauguration of the first ever African-American President on TV and online – but how did being there in person change the way you felt about it?

It’s one thing to see it on TV and see pictures of it, but actually being there is completely different. You can feel the entire atmosphere of everything. You can see everything that’s going on – all of the security that was there with Obama. It’s so much different to see it in person and actually witness it. Even when I watch clips of it, I still get the feeling that I had, but it’s to the extent of what I was feeling at the time. It was all really moving.