I’m sitting up late looking at the beautiful Denver skyline, working on my plenary speech for tomorrow morning on “Expecting Change & Seizing Opportunity” and thinking about how crazy the times are that we are living in. In the past 2 weeks I’ve been to Chicago (Facing Race), Atlanta (Ignite 2010 with the League of Young Voters & Vibe.com), New York (leadership summit), Virginia (voter registration rally), and now Denver (Community Matters ‘10), speaking to audiences of all ages, ethnicities, & income levels - with everyone ultimately looking for the same thing: Insight into these crazy times we’re living in & the inspiration to believe and hope that this period of exciting but somewhat uncomfortable change will leave us stronger and better than ever before.

I don’t know how good a job I’ve done at providing insight or offering hope these past few weeks, but all I know is that I truly believe that the answers to our most pressing problems and the ideas that will allow us to seize the opportunities of our changing political/environmental/cultural/economic landscape will come boldly and beautifully from this generation. 

I believe that the hip hop and skateboards and blogs and progressive religion and languages and science and social networking and technology and social entrepreneurship and everything else that our generation believes in is just what America needs to dig deep, push past the growing pains of revolution, and come out 10, 20, 30 years from now with our heads held high as a nation soaring the highest heights of humanity. 

Now let’s see if I can convince my audience of that tomorrow morning…