I’m thirty-two years old and for some reason I’ve never voted before. I can remember last time around, four short years ago, when everyone else voted and I didn’t. For the first time I felt like I was missing out, that I wasn’t doing my part and I felt a little ashamed and embarrassed that I didn’t take the time to vote. After all, it’s a blessing to live in a country where my vote actually counts so it just doesn’t make any sense not to.

But, today I finally voted and it was exciting. I was a little nervous when they handed me the ballots and I felt like a noob when I had to read the instructions on how to fill out each of the three big sheets. One sheet had the main elected positions that included voting for the president. The next one was a list of propositions that are California specific and then the other one was even more local to San Francisco.

It didn’t take me long to make my way through them and to be totally honest there were several positions (like board of education) that I had no clue who to vote for. For those positions I looked at what each person’s background was and picked the one I thought seemed best for the role. If there was an incumbent and I felt like things are going well with whatever they’re running for I voted for them to keep the position. For the California propositions I did my homework last night and had a list ready to either mark yes or no. With the propositions I’m just happy that they’re finally done with so I can stop seeing the commercials, billboards and posts on Facebook about them. It’s ridiculous how much money goes towards getting support for each one and being in advertising I have a much better idea of how much that really is. It’s crazy money.

The one thing that’s different now that I’ve voted is that I can’t complain about the process anymore and I can’t have the feeling that my vote doesn’t count, because it does. I’m not sure how close the votes going to be but regardless how it shakes out it feels good to know that I’ve been part of the process. I wish that I would have taken it more seriously over the past twelve years that I was legal to vote but unfortunately at that point in my life I just didn’t care. I didn’t think it was worth it, I didn’t want to put my vote where my beliefs were and it was just easier to skip it.

But not this year, this year I voted and I hope you did, too. If not, I can’t even begin to judge you — just promise that you’ll do it next time.