Matt is a regular guy. He has a job. He loves his dog. He says “no homo” unnecessarily after regular male-to-male interactions. He’s a regular guy. But Matt…Matt voted. And it mattered.
It was Matt’s first election voting. He finally registered to vote online a few months after his girlfriend reminded him to do so.
On Election Day, he went to the polling place. He only knew where to go because his mom texted him the address. He didn’t know who would win, but figured we’d be all right no matter the outcome.
“The economy will just fluctuate, no matter which party is in charge, right?” he thought. Matt liked to think he was an informed voter. He picked whichever local candidate had the cooler name of the two.
He didn’t vote for any women. Except Hillary. Matt voted for Hillary because he wasn’t a racist. Matt also liked the fact that Hillary didn’t want to sexually assault anyone. Matt remembered back to a time in the soccer locker room when he and his friends talked about a girl’s ass. It definitely wasn’t the same.
So Matt felt good about his vote. Matt wore his “I Voted Today” sticker around all day. He posted a picture of it on Snapchat with the caption, “#adulting.”
Matt felt like he had done a good thing, so he treated himself by skipping class and watching “The Apprentice” reruns on television. After falling asleep in front of the TV, he woke up at 9:00 p.m. After watching the Snapchat stories of the people who didn’t annoy him, scrolling through Instagram for seven minutes, refreshing once, and responding to the text his mom sent to him six hours prior…he remembered that the election results would be finalized soon.
He flipped to Fox News to see what was going on. He’d always liked Fox News; his parents always watched it. The newscasters were discussing the electoral college votes. Matt remembered back to his high school government class.
“What was the electoral college again?” he wondered. He knew what college was. Matt is, after all, a college student, the future of America. He was going to Google it on his phone, but forgot to do so after opening a Snapchat message from a pretty girl he’d met in his psychology lab. He left the one from his girlfriend unopened.
Matt looked back up at the TV just as a winner had been declared. Matt was okay with it. Matt was glad he voted. No matter the result, he felt like he’d done a good thing. Matt thought to himself that he loved living in a democracy. A democracy where the people choose the leaders. He was thankful for the power of his vote.
