Making My Mark

The alarm sounded at 5:45, and instead of being grumpy about having to get out of bed, I jumped up, and quickly got dressed. I hit "on" on the coffee maker to start brewing, and gathered my things while I waited for my hot beverage. I felt giddy, like a kid on Christmas morning.

As I pulled up at 6:15 to the street in front of the church where we vote, I saw the line of people bundled up already making their stance in history. Their voices were quiet, but their presence speaking quite loudly. I walked up, and said in a jovial tone,

"What time did y'all get here to be first in line?" The older African-American man answered back happily,

"Oh, about 5:30." I patted his friend on the back as I walked by and said,

"5:30! I'm impressed!" We chuckled and I walked on to the back of the line.

A few seconds later a woman walked up behind me and we said hello. Then we ended up talking for most of the time we were in line. A reporter showed up about 6:30 and was snapping some pictures, and a man was sneakily passing out flyers campaigning for his candidates.

Then, we all watched as a SUV drove into the parking lot. In trying to squeeze by the line of voters, the driver didn't realize she was about to scrape up next to a parked Jeep. We all gasped together when she hit it, and then let out another "oooohh" when she tried to back up, and just scraped it the other way. The man I had originally spoken with, who had been there since 5:30 came walking back, and very casually said,

"Hold on. Let me pull forward." After he moved his car forward, he said for her to not worry about it, that he thought his car was fine. I'm guessing hers was not. The woman next to me giggled and whispered, "It doesn't look like this is the first time that's happened" as we were on the opposite side of her car, and could see scrapes there as well.

A few minutes later, we were escorted into the building, and knew that we would soon make our choices, and go our merry ways. After 4 long years, now it would only be hours until we would all see the results of who America chose as our next President.

So, on went my day, of making breakfast, and dressing children, and of course stopping to get my free coffee for voting. Knowing all the while today is a day of making history.