07 November 2008

My First Time...and It Felt Good!

I voted. It was very empowering. I went to the polling place at six a.m. thinking, "beat the crowd." As it turned out, hundreds of people were thinking the same thing. I waited in line for 45 minutes but it was well worth it. Despite the long line, nary a complaint was heard. Just gleeful greetings from complete strangers on a cool, brisk Tuesday morning. Stories shared, giggles and laughter spread, opinions exchanged, I've never felt like I belonged to this community until that day.

And when it was my turn to go to the polling booth, I.D. presented, name checked, ballot handed, I walked to an empty stall, deliberately taking my time just so I could take it all in. When I got to the stall, I looked around and saw that the smiles were gone. All that was left was a sense of purpose. A let's-get-down-to-business look on all the faces. And so I did. I grabbed the pen and cast my vote, walked to the scanner and fed my ballot through the machine. Then I left the building involuntarily grinning.

I voted. And my president won. Things can only get better now.

4 comments:

Jason Grimes said...

Congrats to you and for the rest of the Americans who voted for change! We can't vote for him, but we were equally pleased with the results.

JZ said...

thank you! i don't see how it could have gone the other way!

Anonymous said...

Gobama! Even from across the pond, the excitement was felt!

JZ said...

all four corners of the earth rejoiced! well, maybe except texas.