I live in a small town; the polling site is at the local fire department, not far down the street from my apartment. Prior to going, I had the whole scenario in my head -- where would I park, who would be in there wanting to talk small town talk, what if I forgot how to use the voting booth, what if I voted for the wrong people. I'm sure I had a few other worries in there, if those weren't irrational enough. :-)

In any case, I kept thinking about how far I've come since last November. I took one step at a time, reminding myself that I could turn back at any time (drove by the fire department, checked out the parking lot, drove in, thought about walking which is usually more difficult for me than driving, parked, looked for the right door, got out of my car, etc.). I also decided that I'd probably seem pretty nervous when I got in there, but I just couldn't care about that because voting is far more important than whether or not people see me nervous (and I think that was a good revelation to have -- I don't always think that way, but it got me through it on Tuesday).

So, I went in and voted and drove home and sang the voting song to Gilliam and Palin, two orange cats who call themselves my roommates. OK, so there's no voting song, but you'd be surprised at how easily Christmas carol lyrics can be manipulated.

And, I was proud of myself at about 9:30 pm when the election results started coming in, and I knew my vote helped to change my state's political landscape a bit. Not bad for someone who once couldn't even walk downstairs to get her mail.

Copyright ©1998 Cathleen J. Henning