Excited and nervous! These are the feelings
I had during the election three years ago. The night before the election 2010,
I have difficulty in sleeping. I felt afraid. I don’t know what I’m afraid of.
I can’t figure it out. When the day arrived, I woke up earlier. I want to be in
precinct I am assigned earlier so I couldn’t suffer the long line. I woke my
sister and my parents up for us to get ready for voting. Hehehe.
As
we were in school we’re the voting held, I didn’t know what to do. Glad my
mother were there to assist me. Also, it was the first time for my sister so I
felt a bit relief since I had a companion of a first-timer. That fact doesn’t
heal my nervous. My hands were shaking. I had many what ifs on my mind which I
am worried to happened. One of those is what if I mess up the ballot. What if
the ballot couldn’t be read by the machine for the mess I will maybe made. What
if the PCOS machine will not accept my ballot as what I heard in the news that
there’s a possibility. What if? What if?
While I fell in line, I thought of those what if. Urghhhhhhhh! To entertain my
mind and to make that thought out of my mind even just for a second, I run a
conversation with my sister. As our conversation flowed, we came up of talking
about the worries I had. And funny as I see it, we had the same worries. It was
all our first time to use the machine. Hahahahaha. That felt another bit
relief.
Then,
time came, my turn to vote. Whew! I felt more nervous but not to the extent
that I’m going to collapse. No! No! It was just my hands were still shaking.
What I did was breath deeply to make me relax and stop my hands from shaking. I
write my signature and got my ballot. I have to wait for a second to vote. And
finally my turn. As I looked at the ballot, the circles are so small. I thought
of having difficulty in filling it up. And, I was right. I really have
difficulty. To avoid the mess, I encircle it slowly and gently. And after few
minutes, I’m done. No need to look for whom to vote because my mind is already
fixed for whom to vote before I entered the precinct.
After
the encircling portion, time to insert the ballot to the machine. This is it.
Know what, chances making me a joke. The ballot of the person who were in front
of me was rejected by the machine. Whoa! The thing I’m worried about. Chances
really played me. It was rejected twice and on its 3rd insertion,
the machine accepted it. Now, my turn.Before I position my ballot for
insertion, I prayed. As I inserted it, the machine eat it. I felt more nervous
as I wait for the confirmation. It took almost a minute to process the ballot.
And, at last, the machine accepted my ballot. I got my pointing finger an ink
and immediately go out the precinct.
Yehey,
I overcome my nervous! I felt relaxed. So relaxed. That was what happened
during my first time. Every time I remembered it, I smiled. It’s really funny
for me. Glad that was only for first time. It never happened again during this year’s election. Hehehehe.