There is a lot of pressure to be the President of the United States, but even more pressure to be a man of the people; Barack Obama has this down to a science.

Walking onto the stage in a blue-collared button down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, Obama blends seamlessly into the crowd of literal, blue-collar Ford plant workers.

The applause that fills the plant is deafening, but before long turns into a mixture of laughs and jeers as the President mocks the Kansas City Chiefs.

As part of the audience, I laughed right alongside everyone else. Being North Kansas City High School’s press representative at Mr. Obama’s speech on Friday, September 20, was a bit intimidating at first, but within a few minutes, I was completely at ease.

Four students, one from each of the North Kansas City School District High Schools, were chosen to attend the President’s address at the Ford plant. It was a great honor to be the student chosen from Northtown, truly one of my biggest accomplishments.

The day started early, as I had to get up far sooner than usual to get dressed up for the occasion. Before I could go to the Liberty plant, I had to come to school to get all my camera equipment and meet with the three other journalism students.

We all went together, supervised by the North Kansas City High School yearbook teacher, Mary Prichard. Once we arrived, we had to wait for quite some time before we were allowed access inside.

Since we were press representatives, we were allowed to set up with all of the official press. In fact, I had my camera set up directly to the right of KMBC-9 News and KCTV-5 News. Elevated about 8 feet off the floor, we had a prime view of the stage.

The thirty minutes Mr. Obama spent speaking were completely surreal; it was absolutely amazing to me that I was seeing this, and it was not through a TV screen. He was a spectacular public speaker, being skilled in how to play the audience just right. His tone transferred flawlessly from joking about our home football team, to addressing the dire circumstances our government could come to, if Congress did not soon agree on a new budget for the next year.

After President Barack Obama completed his speech, he flew off the stage to shake hands of all the Ford workers and other people who had attended the speech. Beyond that, he posed for pictures with a little girl in his arms and him sitting in a Ford F-150 on display.

Mr. Obama left, and in moments the crowd cleared, dozens of empty water bottles scattered across the floor. The four students and Mrs. Prichard reconvened to film short closings for each of our school’s broadcasts before packing up our equipment.

To wrap up an exhilarating, yet exhausting, day the five of us went out for a late lunch in celebration of the day.