As of the publishing time of this column, it has been around a month since the inauguration of Donald Trump to the chief position of the Executive Branch. I’m 18 years old now and was 17 at the time of the election. The last time the presidency shifted was in 2009, really 2008, or eight years ago.

To be frank, I can’t really recall much about the previous election, when Barack Obama took office. Sure I remember the events, I remember my brother and my mother going to a rally, and I remember Barack Obama winning, but I don’t remember what it felt like. I simply couldn’t comprehend what it meant, and I’m one of the oldest students in the school. Some of my peers, and probably some of my readers, might remember even less. This is the first real shift we’ve not only witnessed but also understand. It’s a big moment. But, right now I don’t want to talk about what this presidential shift means, how it’s good or bad, or how it means more than any other. Better writers have already done that. Instead, I want to take a second to reflect on the last eight years and what they might mean to us as a school and students because, in some ways, they’re the only years we know.

During his presidency, Obama was a constant, someone who had his means and methods and stood by them. This can be a good or bad thing, especially if you didn’t like how Obama went about his business, but it provided stability. Everything was constant. It was safe and constant. Obama was never hard to predict, by the end I could guess his response to most actions. Oftentimes, just by long proxy and observation, and other times as a response to tragedy and violence. Regardless, I and most others knew.

One of the most interesting facets of presidential elections is what the populace prioritizes. Not policy but character. Leadership capability is important in a president. A president has to stand as a symbol of what America is and how the world sees us. Here, is perhaps where Obama was at his best. As I said earlier, Obama is a constant and calming force, and he carried that everywhere. He never rose a scandal, lost his temper, or did anything but represent the best of our country. He handled world leaders with aptitude and opponents with grace. In total, he was a role model. Whether or not you liked Obama, you could look at him and see the qualities of a leader, and for a school that puts an emphasis on leadership, this was paramount.

Not everybody liked Obama and not everyone agreed with him, but he did mean something to everybody. He was a force of nature but shared nothing in common with the volatility of others. It was a calming force, the force of a leader. You might not miss Obama, or, like me, you might miss him severely. Right now it doesn’t matter. The tides of change are upon us, and we all feel that. So take a second to remember who Obama was—both the undeniable and the individual. Whether you agreed or not because he’s gone and the world and our community won’t be the same