It’s over. It’s finally over. Joe Biden is the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election.

It’s a sigh of relief for many and a hard reality for others. Nearly 18 months have passed since Biden announced his plans to run for president, and we’ve all been entranced, wondering how this political battle would end. Now, as the former Vice President gets ready to move into the White House, Biden supporters are partying in the streets, while President Donald Trump’s supporters are questioning the results.

On Tuesday night at 7 p.m., I sat down, turned on CNN and prepared for a wave of emotions. I wondered if we would know results by the end of the night. I was surprised to see many states called throughout the night but grew frustrated that many crucial swing states were taking what seemed like forever to count the votes. Since Election Night is like my once-every-four-years Superbowl, I vowed to stay up all night to see if we would find out any major news.

At around 10:30 p.m., things were not looking good for Biden. He was down by hundreds of thousands of votes in the all-important swing states that I had been studying for weeks before the election. 

Before Election Day, I had high hopes for Biden, seeing the polls heavily in his favor. But I knew that I couldn’t get too confident. The polls had been so far off in the last election when Trump shocked the world and defeated Hillary Clinton. 

At this point in the night, I texted my mom, “Joe Biden is going to lose, I’m almost sure of it now. This is 2016 all over again.”

Boy, am I glad that I was wrong. 

Around midnight, I started playing around with a hypothetical electoral map on my laptop, trying to predict all the possible outcomes for the election. Deep down, I thought that we were doomed. No combination of states seemed to be probable enough for a Biden win. It looked as if he had to overtake Trump in almost every state, and I thought that there was no chance. 

At 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, I was drifting off to the anchors of CNN saying that it was not looking good for Biden. Discouraged, scared and tired, I went to sleep hoping for a miracle overnight.

The miracle came in the form of mail-in ballots. Slowly but surely, the Trump leads started shrinking. Throughout the day on Wednesday, I heard Minnesota call for Biden. Then Wisconsin. Then Michigan. My hopes had come back. I was relieved. 

These results took a uniquely long time as opposed to past presidential elections, in large part due to the increased number of voters who voted by mail this year. Many Americans, including myself, became frustrated with how long it took to find out the results. We waited and then waited some more. Finally, right before noon on Saturday, the race was called for Biden. 

I think Americans became so tired of waiting for the results because of this pandemic. We’ve been cooped up in our homes for almost seven months now, and our patience is running low. We’re tired of waiting for a vaccine, annoyed that this virus is still not under control and scared that our country is reaching peak numbers of cases this week. 

Hopefully, this all changes with Biden’s presidency. He has laid out his plan to control the virus, and I have high hopes. It will be difficult, of course, to convince every American to listen to Biden and the scientists, but I believe in us. We are ready for change. We want to return to normal life, and I truly believe that Biden will be that change for us as we transition back to normalcy. 

America has made its choice. Biden will be our next president. The question is: Is this country prepared to embrace our new leader? Only time will tell.