Today’s a big day for me.
I’ve been waiting for this election for 1,463 days. On the final night of the 2012 election, I remember thinking that I would get to vote the next time a president was elected. I distinctly remember sitting in my room that night, looking at some obscure blogger who was predicting who would be the next Democratic and Republican candidates for president, already trying to decide. I remember thinking that the two men he chose weren’t fantastic, but I would have to choose between them, so I made my choice. This blogger (who, in all honestly, probably googled “top Democrats and Republicans” and picked two random men off the list) was wrong about who was going to be a candidate. And I’m very, very happy about it.
Y’all. I just got to vote for a woman for president.
This may not seem like a big deal to you. Sure, there have been women who were candidates for top offices before. There are female leaders all around the world. But never in history has there been a female candidate who is a strong contender for president of the United States of America. So yeah, it’s a big deal.
96 years ago, women couldn’t even vote. There are women who were alive at that time, who remember when women couldn’t use their own voices, who cast their ballot for a woman today. There are women whose mothers and sisters and grandmothers and aunts were suffragettes and never got to see that a female could even be considered for presidential office who voted for a woman today. There are women who were told they couldn’t be what they wanted because “women don’t belong in positions of power” who voted for a woman for the highest office in the nation today.
Honestly, I don’t care if you don’t like her. I don’t mind if you don’t agree with her. I don’t even agree with her on everything. But she’s one of my biggest role models. In a world where women in politics are always considered the assistant and never the leader, it’s been inspiring to see her rise above it all and fight for her right to assume office. And as a woman who wants to be involved in politics, I am forever grateful that she has set an example of just how powerful a woman can be.
I’ve been watching videos of women crying after being able to vote for a woman for president for the first time. I’ve had “I’m with her” written on my hand all day, and I don’t even care about the glares I got from the Trump supporter who sits behind me in Italian. I might’ve started crying in Starbucks when I saw a picture of Susan B. Anthony’s headstone covered in “I Voted” stickers (and it was a loud, ugly sob fest, let me tell you). Clearly, I’m an emotional wreck today, as I should be.
I honestly don’t know what will happen in tonight’s election. Tomorrow morning, our country will have a better idea of what the next four years hold. But what matters the most to me is what’s changing right now. Women have more of a chance for their voices to be heard than they ever have before, and that makes this one of the greatest days of my life.
Today’s a big day for me. Today’s a big day for women everywhere.
It’s a good day.
(Photo: NY Times)
okay. 