When I dropped my absentee ballot in the mail, it felt decidedly less epic than I had hoped. This election was my first time voting, and I was pretty excited to be able to exercise my rights as a citizen. Maybe if I had been able to vote at home in Maryland it would have felt more dramatic.
But let’s rewind to when I sat down at my desk to fill out the ballot. Normally, when I open an envelope I get overly excited and rip whatever’s inside because I don’t have the patience to open it carefully. This time, though, I was very cautious. I pulled out the perfectly folded ballot and the directions. Naturally, I read through the entire direction booklet even though it’s pretty self-explanatory how to fill out a ballot. I wanted to make sure I got it right because it read that if you messed up, you would have to call and request a new ballot.
“Uh-oh,” I thought to myself. I have the tendency to mess up on important forms, so I needed to really know exactly what I was doing before my no.2 pencil touched the paper.
First up? Voting for president. For me, that wasn’t the hard question. On the Maryland ballot, there were a few tough questions: DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors), the Marriage Equality Bill, and a Gaming Expansion Bill.
This was some serious stuff. To be honest, I didn’t feel as though I knew enough about the specifics of these acts to vote confidently. So, with my ballot next to me, I fired up my laptop and did some research. I didn’t want to simply fill in a bubble without really knowing what these bills were all about. Plus, legislative language is beyond confusing.
Once that was cleared up, I finished my ballot and attempted to fold it up just as it had been when I pulled it out of the envelope. I licked the envelope and closed it, adding some tape for good measure—I wouldn’t want my ballot to fall apart in the mail!
When I got to a mailbox on Comm. Ave., my friend took a picture of my big moment. I opened the mailbox, dropped the envelope in, and closed it. I opened the mailbox again just to make sure it dropped in (thanks, Mom, for teaching me that trick.)
As I walked away from the mailbox, it didn’t feel like a huge deal. But I smiled because I knew that I had done my part in voicing the direction I hope this country can go. My vote probably won’t make a difference. Still, it felt good knowing that it could.