My Journey From Apathy To Casting My First Vote

Removing myself from the process wasn’t an act of defiance. It was just the absence of conviction.

“It wasn’t until I met friends in politics that I could grasp the big picture and realize that my perspective on elections had been skewed from the start. For most of my adult life, my interest in politics had been limited to the national election: the big game, the show. My mailbox would overflow with flyers for local politicians and seats up for grabs, and I’d toss them out before I even made it to my door. In sports, this would be the equivalent of doing nothing on offense the whole game, only to toss up a Hail Mary with three seconds left on the clock. But change is never a Hail Mary. It requires groundwork.” — Miguel Machado

Read Machado’s essay in its entirety below.

My Vote Didn’t Matter — or So I Thought