9

7/28/08

Repeat As Necessary

3/20/09

Do you remember back in elementary school, when they told us that our votes could change anything? They told us that we had to go vote, that it was our civic duty, that we'd make an impact on the world. Voting seemed like something so glamorous, and I kept that childhood idealistic version clutched to my heart for far too long.

Now I'm starting to realize more and more that everything they taught us in elementary school was bullshit. Christopher Columbus didn't befriend the Indians,you actually can subtract five from four, and your vote doesn't change anything.

Because of you, I voted for the war to end, even though my family mocked me for being a stinking liberal.



Not that I'm not glad you didn't join the army. If you hadn't, you'd never have been able to afford college and if you hadn't been able to afford college, I never would have met you. And maybe that means I wouldn't be missing you now, and I wouldn't be doing our tradition alone, but that doesn't much seem worth it. It's worth being a so-called stinking liberal to know you.

I might feel differently if you get hurt.

Not that it wasn't sad enough sitting here, counting shooting stars by myself, with you half a world away. We couldn't even see stars at the same time, because it was daylight where you were. Each star was something magical, but significantly less exciting than if you had been here with me.

You had to come home soon. You just had to. I was getting more and more blue with every passing day. I just couldn't let you be gone anymore.

That night, flushed in navy, I kept making stupid useless wish after stupid useless wish because I didn't think it could hurt, regardless.