In an ironic and somewhat serendipitous twist, President Obama was Jack’s graduation speaker and, therefore, the person who handed my brother his diploma and commission. The graduation picture circulating the Web this weekend was of the two embracing. Yes, there was something irreversibly bizarre about Obama giving Jack his diploma. But as his sister and an observer at the ceremony, I thought it was a beautiful way to put the events of elections past behind my family. In a weird way it felt like the end of an era—and obviously, the beginning of a new one…

Of all the things in my life of which I am proud, my family’s legacy to this country will always be the strongest. And it’s the one thing I get truly emotional talking about. Last summer, when everyone wrote my father off from being the Republican Party’s nominee for president and no one wanted to touch his campaign, he went on the “No Surrender Tour” around VFW halls in the South. That tour, and the veterans he met along the way, brought back his campaign. My brothers give up so much for this country and I appreciate everything they, and so many other men and women, do every day.