I voted at an actual polling booth!

So normally, in college, I wasn't sure with class, etc., whether I should spend the time to vote on voting day. I always voted on a mail-in ballot - which I gotta tell you is a little lackluster. You mail it in, and that's it, no sticker, no smiles from volunteers, no leaving work for a change of scene.

Well that changed this past Tuesday! It was especially exciting with what Facebook was doing - encouraging everyone to weigh in on voting with the "I voted" button - I loved it.

I will always vote and now it gets to be one of those joys I have time for - everyone at work is asking if you voted, and telling you to make time for it. I wasn't gone more than an half hour because the lines were so short! I walked right up to a booth after they signed me in - went through a touch screen digital device, and it was all done so quickly! Then I got to proudly wear my "I voted" sticker.

Also, I really enjoyed seeing my baby cousin Kathleen (who is now 18 - my goodness!) weigh in about voting for the first time at the polls, too. I have never forgotten the lessons we learned about women's suffrage in grade school classes in Mount Laurel. A woman from the Alice Paul Society told us a lot about Alice Paul's life. What I remembered most was a story about her at the end of her life. She was living in a nursing home and struggling with the pain inflicted on her as a younger woman - she was force-fed in jail, a fate that chills me to the bone every time I think about it. They stuffed tubes down her throat against her will (pumping raw eggs into her stomach), so her throat and voice were never the same. She still fought for the movement. But even though it was difficult for her to speak at that late point in her life, she always asked every woman she met if she voted. I learned that in grade school and swore I'd always honor the women who fought for my right to vote. Thank goodness someone decided to stop at nothing - even horrible punishments inflicted by the very institution the suffragettes were trying to make better.

I probably could have had the same experience in college, but I always went an easier route. I really enjoyed going to the polls on Voting Day and probably will do it the same way next time!