Election Day: Looking back on a private transformation

I have voted in two presidential elections, and the only constant for me between the two was watching the election results in my room from my computer. I've undergone many changes in the four years that passed between, my party affiliation not the least of these, and in some ways, voting in this election was a consummation of that change. It's a very neat way to track cycles of personal development, and it will be interesting to see where I am at and how I am thinking when the next election comes around. I don't expect to careen crazily between parties again as I have these past four years, but I do hope to see a refinement of my views and a filling in of the fine lines between broad platform statements.

The way I spent both election nights--sitting up late with my laptop, wearing pajamas and flipping between Facebook and news and Netflix--speaks to the privacy of this transformation, and also the ways in which I have kept it silent. The election polarized my Facebook friends pretty neatly according to rural and urban geography, and I chose not to add my voice to the mix. My brother and I have been having a lively series of political debates via private messages on Facebook, and I received and sent a message to him the next day, but I didn't make a single public comment on the election results. I often keep silent because I am unsure what to say, and I don't like to say anything until I'm sure about it, but I hope that by the next election I will have found a voice in this discussion. I want to find the right balance between confidence and picking fights with my younger cousin over a pro-Romney blog.

Best of luck to future-Andrea in her 2016 voting.