I was reminded of this fact at about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. That’s when my cell phone alarm went off at my friend Brian’s house in Washington, D.C. He was kind enough to let me crash on his couch while I was in town covering the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Because of the crowds expected for the swearing-in of the nation’s first African American president, I had to get on the first Metro train I could in order to get to my entrance when the gates opened at 8 a.m. Thus, I — a non-morning person in the truest sense of the word — had to be awake, coherent and ready to negotiate the terrain.

That made me a little grumpy. But Brian, a person with whom I have the kind of relationship that allows us to be totally rude to each other and still remain friends, put it in perspective for me.

“You’ve got a front row seat for history, so stop complaining!”

(It was literally a front-row seat, by the way. I was in the front row of section 8, which was right in front of where the swearing-in took place. Granted, I didn’t have as good a seat as Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson or the Tuskegee Airmen, but I did have a better seat than Halle Berry, and I’m still trying to figure out how that happened.)

I got a look at Obama shortly before he was introduced at the swearing-in via one of the many jumbo screens used for the event. If he was nervous, he didn’t show it. Personally, I’d have thrown up. When you look at the problems this man is facing, it’s a job I’d want no part of.

But I was glad to see him standing there, being presidential, because if you had told me two years ago that I’d be at Obama’s inauguration, I’d have looked at you like you were nuts. I hadn’t been far enough removed from living in a place as well known for its organized hate groups as it is its shopping to believe that it was possible.

So, as I sat there in the cold, I thought about folks like my mom, who is 85, from the South, and probably thought she’d never see this day. I also thought about my dad, who was in the Army, voted Republican, and probably would have been glad to see the sacrifices he made

And I also thought about all of those smart kids of color who are looking for a role model, someone who will make studying and being smart “cool” as opposed to being seen as “white.” I have seen few people as cool as Barack Obama.

While spending three hours in Washington, D.C. waiting in frigid conditions for Obama’s swearing-in wasn’t my first choice for how to spend Tuesday morning, I knew that if I wasn’t there it would feel like I had been following a story for months and wasn’t present to write the big follow-up.

It’s a story that I’ll continue to follow. We all should.