Part of the Process

I'm excited that I get to be a part of history this coming February. As hopefully many are aware of, February 5 is Super Tuesday when 22 states holds their primary elections. When I was a student in my senior year, my government teacher told us of a student poll worker program. Since she was head of the department and it was an AP course, most if not all of her students from our school got in. I had a blast quite honestly. I woke up at five in the morning, had a cup of cinnamon bun oatmeal and a bagel, and was driven by my grandma. On the way there she asked if I would like a Starbucks, but I declined, for some reason thinking they wouldn't have a bathroom and there wouldn't be a chance to go. Of course, there was. The polling place was actually the old theater on Haven by the bowling alley. It had been converted into a church, and each individual theater of the three or four on the ground floor was a different room (adults, kids, teens), which I thought was really cool. They showed up around eight after the polls closed, and I could hear their music as we were cleaning up. They sounded like they were having fun, and even though I didn't and don't subscribe to a religion, I admired that. Anyway, I remember that day so clearly. I worked with two very nice old ladies, another woman, a man, and our inspector was a middle age guy. He took me with him when he dropped off the ballots, and then he dropped me off at home. It was on some dirt road in the dark, and it seemed all top secret. I had Del Taco for lunch because my mom gave me five dollars for food, I brought my notebook along to write, and I tried reading 1984. Overall I had an awesome, if not tiring, day. As an added bonus, they pay you though this doesn't compare to everything else.

So I signed up to do it again! Four years later in the 2008 primary, I will be on the frontlines once more. I'll be stationed at the mobile home park my dad and grandma lived in, and it's right down the street. My training class is the 17th at nine in the morning, and my brother will be a poll worker this time with me. I'll have to miss my bowling class, but that's alright. I'll let the coach know in advance. I'm going to try and contribute to CNN if I can with iReports. I already let my supervisor know ahead of time that I want to, and though this semester I am asking for a lot of leeway with school, it is about time I seriously put school ahead of everything. I love every class I am about to take, especially the PE classes (I heart archery ever since high school when we did it Sophomore year...hopefully I'll be better this time around and not lose an arrow in the grass somewhere).