Dear Mr. President

I wanted to take this moment to thank you for what you have meant to me and this country. Eight years ago, I watched with tears in my eyes as you spoke to the nation from Grant Park as the first African-American President-elect. I thought to myself as I watched you and your beautiful family that night. They look like me. I never thought I would say that in my lifetime, but they look like me. But you were more than that. You were not just my President; you were a President of all the people as you said that night:

“We rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.”

Sadly many who opposed you did not take heed to those words. Instead, from the very start, they did everything in their power to see to it that you failed. But you never sank to the depths of their pettiness. You held firm to your principles and worked for the betterment of all people in this country. You carried yourself with dignity and class, and as such, you were admired not just in America but around the globe. You were a fitting face of America, and you made us all proud. You showed us what a great leader you were and showed the world what a true family man looks like. Forever devoted to and respectful of your loving wife Michelle, a doting father to two beautiful daughters, you are the role model to which all men should aspire. You leave us now, despite all of the push back you had to endure, in a better place than we were eight years ago. You will be missed but not forgotten. They will try to erase your legacy now, but history always remembers, and you, Mr. President, will be remembered as one of the great ones.

Thank you, President Obama