I was in Journalism class when I unsuspectingly opened up Yahoo and found that Hosni Mubarak—Egypt’s ruler for 30 years—had resigned. I quickly announced the news to the class and was promptly asked to write an editorial with a painfully simple theme: discuss the importance of the change in Egyptian governance to Arab-Americans.

The prompt was less simple than I thought. How do you describe the importance of an event? What words to you use? Climactic? Brilliant? Shocking? And if those words don’t suffice, is it okay to use metaphors? And what types of metaphors are appropriate?

Are you allowed to make jokes about Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers in an editorial about Middle Eastern governments?

Ultimately, after numerous questions to my editor and a “subtle” request that I sit down and sift through my thoughts quietly, I came to the following conclusion.

The Egyptian protests and the resulting change in Egyptian government that they sparked occurred in a whirlwind. Hosni Mubarak had been in power for 30 years—nearly twice the length of my own life—when the protests started and, after only 18 days of protests, his government had lost all international credibility and productive capacity. Time appeared to be travelling on steroids. The entire process should have occurred over several months, during which time the movement would gradually grow, and eventually take on the shape of an organized movement. The entire 18 days seemed like a dream: a good dream, but a dream nonetheless.

Stunning as the speed of the protests was, however, there is no denying that they reflected a new, positive change in the Arab people. I had grown up hearing the occasional reference to Hosni Mubarak—I’d seen images of him on Aljazeera while sitting in the kitchen with my parents and heard about his role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Every international reference to him that I heard carried an undertone of disdain—as though everyone knew that he was not the most noble of leaders, but that supporting him was necessary for the preservation of a larger American goal in the Middle East.

This year, the Egyptian people acted in a way that countered international goals in the region. They took back their country and no Thesaurus, dictionary, or Bieber/Jonas Brother joke can demonstrate the emotional significance that that represents.

As an Arab-American, I was shocked at the speed with which the Egyptian protests occurred, but perhaps that was because I was shocked that the protests had occurred at all—I had not expected such an open protest against a U.S.-supported government.

The next year will be tremendously important to the future of the Middle East and it is imperative that the global community remain invested in the region’s stability, but it is nice to step back and look at the situation for what it is: a country trying to make the definite move from autocratic to democratic governance. That’s something to smile about.