It is a beautiful and joyous November night in Harlem. I’m there among thousands of people piled together so closely that all I can see are the building tops, the stars, and one giant television screen.

There’s a man on the screen. He’s African American, with short hair, a big smile, and a personable complexion. A normal looking man, but the people around me were looking at him like he was Christ himself.

That was eight years and four months ago. The man on the screen was Barack Hussein Obama. The date was November 4th, 2008, and it was the night he was elected president of the United States of America.

I was eight years old. My mom told me before we went that it was going to be a very special night, and that I was to see one of the biggest parts of American history. I didn’t completely understand the significance of what I was watching, but there was a feeling inside me that told me what I was looking at was really important. There was a woman crying next to me, but it wasn’t a sad cry, it was a cry of joy that I had never quite seen before.

As an eight year old, my view of the man on the screen was restricted, so I heard much more than I saw. The way he spoke that night still resonates with me today. He was so smooth. Everything he said flowed at the perfect pace, and despite his calmness, he was making everyone in front of me go wild.

He simply inspired. I didn’t even understand everything he was talking about, but as I listened, he made me feel. I knew nothing about him, but from the moment he spoke, I definitely believed in him.

Eight years and four months later, much has changed. In his presidency, Obama lowered the unemployment rate by more than 3%. The Dow Jones industrial average increased dramatically, and 20 million less people are in need of health care.

But when I think about how I’ll remember Obama, the first president my generation really got to know, it won’t be for the numbers, whether good or bad.

It’ll be for how he connected me with me as a person despite never meeting him. I’ll remember him crying on national television as he addressed the nation following the sandy hook shooting. I’ll remember him cracking jokes in interviews.

He was a president,yes. But before that, and he would agree, he was a person, and a proud citizen of his country.

Was Obama a great president? In my opinion, yes. In yours, maybe not.

But the question “Is Obama a great man” is no matter of opinion. Regardless of your political alignments or beliefs there is no denying that Obama was one the purest men to ever lead our country.