Whether you watched on prime time or kept up to date on Twitter, President Obama’s last State of the Union Address was both uplifting and reminiscent of the year. Obama delivered his 8th State of the Union address on January 12th in Washington at 6pm.

   The President made powerful statements such as the bettering state of the economy, the power of our military, as well as his presidency. He stated, “the United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world … anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.” The President’s address encapsulated Obama as a whole, he even started with the joke “tonight marks the eighth year I’ve come here to report on the State of the Union. And for this final one, I’m going to try to make it shorter. I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa.”

   President Obama put smiles on many faces.  Hokuto Ota (12) stated, “because the address had many jokes it made it so that high school kids like me were interested the whole time as well as actually learning about the country.” He also speculated about the future such as the state of Guantanamo Bay as he “will keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo: it’s expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies.”

 Robert Tinti (11) said, “the fact that he was able to admit he made some mistakes in office makes me happy to know that he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s perfect.”

   Whether people love or hate Obama as, this last address was one to bring up all the good he has done for the country– as well as his shortcomings which he pointed out as well. People are all looking forward to seeing who the next leader of our country will be and hope they will be one to match or even go beyond what Obama was able to do.