Almost a week ago, America saw the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Yesterday, Boston held its annual marathon, and for the first time since 1983, an American won the men’s race.

Meb Keflezighi won the race, bringing back the medal to America. He won with a time of 2:08:37. On the women’s side of the race, Kenyan Rita Jeptoo won for the second time with a time of 2:18:57.

Though the race is about unity and having a good time, Keflezighi’s act of nationalism comes at a perfect time in our lives when we need it.

Over the past year we have seen bombings, shootings, stabbings, hostages and attacks on our troops. We rarely see anything good happen in our country. We’re to the point now where we’re so desensitized to violence that it takes a lot to shock us.

And yesterday we saw Boston come back. We saw Boston regroup and reorganize. We saw Boston make a stronger marathon. Every participant who ran yesterday took part in something amazing.

Similar to what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, the community and the nation came together to remember and get stronger. The difference is that Boston surrounded itself around a marathon.

Approximately 36,000 runners took part in the marathon. And before the race even began, letters flooded in asking the committee to let runners run because they needed to run. In those letters, the authors said they knew they weren’t the greatest runners, nor could they most likely even finish the marathon, but they needed to run for those who were affected by the bombings last year.

It’s that sense of nationalism that keeps our country going. Not to say that I approve of all the horrible things our country goes through, but I believe the human spirit can prevail through anything. We are stronger than we look, and yesterday’s demonstration proves it.

This year’s Boston Marathon won’t change the past, but it will give peace to those who were injured or died last year. Our country needed something to move forward and get back into a more uplifting spirit going into the summer months, and this was just this ticket.