Last week, someone asked me “are you voting?” My prompt response was “hell yeah! At this age my grandparents were being heckled as they stood in line to vote in Mississippi.” Fulfilling my civic duty means I just sat in line for 85 minutes with a Tufts senior, Yulia Korovikov, who proudly stated that she would be the first Korovikov to vote in this country! She and I chatted the entire time and just enjoyed the environment. If I were to live blog, it would look something like this.
7:44a.m.: I roll out of my house half asleep
7:50a.m.: I walk into the polling place and see Yulia walking in. We exchange pleasantries and realize that we’re in for the long haul.
7:53a.m.: We see my new roommate waiting in line. He says “I tried to text you this morning, but realized that I didn’t have your phone number.” I thought to myself: we do share a wall, he could have just knocked on my door. But then I thought, well I’m not the nicest person in the morning, so maybe he made the right decision???
8:10a.m.: We’ve reached the first of 3 bends in the line!
8:14a.m.: The cute 3 year old girl in the picture above says “mommy there are so many people here, I’m going to count them all.” There is a collective sigh and a few “awww, how cute(s)” in the crowd. She begins “one, two, three, five, six… twelve, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, there are too many people in line to count daddy.” I nearly hit the floor from laughing so much.
8:55a.m.: We’ve reached the stairs… moving up in the world! Yulia and I share some hi-fives!!!
9:10a.m.: We’re outside of the polling door. Yulia gives a little screech of happiness that this is ABOUT TO HAPPEN
9:12a.m. I see the above sign and think what a beautiful country we live in… directions in English and Spanish!!!
9:20a.m. We’ve both voted for our candidates and questions (equivalent of a proposition in other states) and received our stickers- which is probably the best badge of honor for this day
9:23a.m. We take the above picture and Yulia sends another picture to her dad with a text saying “I VOTED!!!!”
9:40a.m. I’m in the office and starting this blog