Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

02 Nov 2004, 16:16 p.m.

Election Day, 2004

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2004 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

Things to remember about Election Day, November second, 2004:

Going to sleep at 1:30 the morning of, crying and praying. I can't tell where the cold draft in my room is coming from, and it frightens me.

Dropping my absentee ballot into a red box.

Breaking into tears of joy and hope when I see campaign signs and stickers, and the "I Voted" stickers my fellow citizens are wearing as badges of pride.

Working like a golem. Fuel: free bagel, leftover hash browns, vending machine potato chips and Pop-Tarts, coworkers' leftover Halloween candy.

Listening to songs by the Dresden Dolls over and over.

Running back and forth between customer service work at my computer and the big TV at the other end of the office.

Hope.