Title courtesy of my favorite RuPaul song, “The Beginning.”

I’ve been very vocal about my belief in equal rights and last week I was filled with an extreme feeling of relief and victory.

I knew months ago the United States Supreme Court had heard the verbal arguments of Obergefell vs. Hodges which covered whether states are allowed to ban same-sex marriage. I also knew that given the controversy and magnitude of this case, we wouldn’t hear the ruling until the end of June.

I said I would toast the ruling on Twitter and I did later that night on Instagram.

But that didn’t keep me from looking nearly every day at the progress of the case.

I would check the top stories on Google News and read what this presidential candidate or that attorney general had said about the possible outcome of the ruling. If I was paid for my eye rolls, I’d be able to purchase a third-world country and turn it into paradise.

I’m not ashamed to say I’ve already decided whom in the presidential race I will not vote for and I’m shocked at some of the comments I read from different public appearances and interviews.

The closer we got to the end of June, the amount of news checking and the amount fisting clenching increased. I was getting nervous. No news is always good news but when you play the waiting game you find yourself second-guessing what you feel will be an obvious outcome.

I had heard that there was supposed to be a ruling announced on Monday, June 22 and was disappointed when it was just some of the less controversial cases. I had hope when I heard the next round would be Thursday, June 25 and set my alarm accordingly.

Unfortunately, being a student on summer break means I sleep through alarms.

I was supposed to be up at 9:30am but jolted awake around 10:25 a.m. and immediately grabbed my phone to check Twitter. I saw Tweets flowing in about the Supreme Court upholding Obamacare. I jumped out of bed as if there was a fire and ran to my MacBook to start seeking updates.

It was a big day but not the one I had been hoping for.

I set my alarm again and stumbled downstairs the nest morning in hopes I wouldn’t have to wait until Monday to hear about the same-sex marriage ruling. Follow my logic; Obamacare hit the air around 10:20-ish a.m. the morning before so me taking a few minutes around 10 a.m. to make some toast and caffeinate should be fine and I won’t miss anything, right?

Wrong.

Through my iPod’s headphones I heard my mom shouting for me and when I looked into the living room from the kitchen she was pointing at the television. On the screen, ABC had below the correspondent “Supreme Court rules states are required to allow same-sex marriage.”

As one could guess, I immediately jumped to my Macbook and began tweeting, first ABC’s headline then the 5-4 ruling as soon as I heard what it was. Through the live feed from in front of the Supreme Court building I could hear the car horns blaring and the crowds cheering. I was so glad I was up early enough to watch it all unfold and wish I could have been in the center of it all.

After inhaling my cold toast and lukewarm coffee, I spent the next hour watching Twitter explode with Tweets of joy, happiness and celebration. One of my favorites came in the form of a map titled “States where same-sex marriage is now legal. About time” and the entire map was the same color. I never thought such uniformity would look so beautiful.

When United States President Barack Obama spoke in the Rose Garden on the ruling, he opened with one of the more profound statements that I feel many of those in the opposition forget. Honestly, this may be one of my favorite Obama speeches.

The rest of the day I spent watching people react and the funny thing is I didn’t see much negative. The hashtag #LoveWins became the number one trend on Twitter and people changed their profile photos across many social media sites to a rainbow haze over their photo. Here on WordPress, the task bar at the top of the browser was a rainbow instead of the normal solid blue and once night fell the White House was rainbow colored.

It was a great day for equality and a great day for not being afraid of who you are.

Congratulations, everyone. We now live in a country where we just have marriage.

Not one man, one woman.

Not same-sex.

Just marriage.

Just love.

Love Wins.