In the week following Senator Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American President of the United States, countless images have flooded televisions, newspapers and websites worldwide. Images of jubilation, celebration, tears and smiles. The above picture, however, is my personal favorite. A cynic would likely label the above photos “staged” or “sappy” (my friend who sent it to me called it “the most beautiful thing [he'd] ever seen.” I beg to differ). Regardless, it encapsulates everything that happened on election night and in the days since in one simple series of images. It’s an immensely powerful set of images any way you slice it, no matter if you’re black, white, Democrat, Republican, whatever. One of Obama’s talking points throughout his political career has been that his story is a “uniquely American story” due to his self-made success and his mixed heritage. In that same vein, these are distinctly American images. It’s impossible to predict whether America really will change based on this election. But if it does, perhaps we can look back upon pictures like this as the moment where truly anything became possible in America.

Well, almost anything.