Today, for the first time, I (like many of my peers across the nation) voted for the first time in a presidential election. Since I had class from 10 to 4, and was afraid of there being long lines in the evening, I decided to go exercise my civic duty first thing in the morning. I also didn’t sleep very much the night before (a mix of doing homework and general excitement about voting).

Taking a book for the wait, 4 kinds of identification, and my cell phone to help me document the journey, I set out for my conveniently-located polling place at the end of the block. My timeline is below.
 

5:47am – arrive at the polling location. People are already there in line! It’s very dark out and a little chilly. I arrived right before a rush, because within ten minutes the line stretched down two more blocks.

6:03am – doors open. The people who arrived at 5 are getting to go inside!

6:10am – there is some light outside. I saw a surprising (or maybe not so surprising, considering the circumstances) amount of WU students who came out early to vote!

6:27am – clever blog title comes to me. Voting…first time…virginity…alliteration…got it.

6:31am – sunrise! I knew this was coming because I checked the weather.

6:47am – I’ve been standing in line for one hour. I am just a few feet away from the door (it was at a church)!

6:57am – I can see into the room. At this point I am using all of my energy to not squeal, jump up and down, or grin ear-to-ear like an idiot.

7:08am – at the check-in table. The lady said she loved me because I was so prepared with all of my IDs. I opted for a paper ballot – as a student I’m used to “bubble in your answer.”

7:23am – I VOTED! I shook the hands of the man watching over the scanner, and practically glided over the sidewalk back to my apartment.

Before class, I swung by Starbucks to pick up some free coffee, and after class I went to Ben and Jerry’s for some free ice cream.
 

I could really get used to this whole voting thing.