With every firework set off near the Dickinson Amphitheater, and every person who latched on to the snowballing group of students yelling and sprinting, Election Night 2008 grew that much more surreal.

The late-night scene was one you wouldn’t find on an “average” election night. On New Year’s Eve, or in a major city after a Super Bowl win — those might be times you could find something comparable. (See Page 8)

But, of course, there is no real comparison to yesterday, nothing average about the election of the United States’ first black President and the end of the Bush administration that Barack Obama’s presidency will coincide with.

It’s an experience that Binghamton University students, those fortunate enough to be on campus yesterday and wise enough to have embraced Obama, were able to share together. Most BU students that voted yesterday were voting in their first election, a landmark in itself. However, it was the outpouring across campus, the display of concern and motivation that made yesterday’s impromptu parade so impressive.

Change is what we want, and it showed.

During his acceptance speech, Obama tipped his cap to the college crowd: “[The campaign] grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy.”

Our generation has been deemed one that believes activism equivalent to a post on a message board, or the uploading of a video on YouTube. This campus has at times itself been guilty of apathy. But over the span of this election season, as overbearing as it at times may have been, the community dispelled that stereotype.

The caveat, naturally, is that there’s a lot more to do. Later in his speech, Obama said: “For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime.”

True. But for one night Binghamton University grabbed its share of an extraordinary movement, and it was a spectacle to be proud of.