In 2004 LaPetite was 17, just a few weeks too young to vote for president. She was interested, well informed, but the calendar wouldn't cooperate on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. Darn those December babies!
What a difference four years can make! That high school senior who wasn't quite old enough is now a college senior covering the election for her school paper. She voted early because she knew she'd be crazy busy on election day and night. Her paper had a 4 AM deadline, an extension to their usual, and they were taking full advantage of the extra hours to put together a good edition.
She called me from her post somewhere on campus waiting for the shuttle bus to the polling places, waiting to confirm a rumor that a dorm R.A. (resident assistant) had gathered everyone on the entire floor to go vote at the same time. We talked about the races, the states that were falling blue and red, the feeling of voting in this amazing election, and more. After her "group" showed up at the bus stop, she hung up and we fell back on our usual conversation mode: text messaging.
La Petite: He did it! (Did I tell you she was an Obama supporter? She takes after her mother. I'm so proud.)
Me: (nearly speechless, er, textless) W00T! YYYESSS!! (Yes, I resorted to kid-speak even as I felt tears threatening)
La Petite: Me so excited! (Oh, yes, this is the young woman who wants to write for a living)
Me: Me, too! (Oh, mother dear, really articulate you are. What's with the Yoda grammar in parentheses?)
La Petite: History!! (And this time she's studying it as it happens. Maybe in the future she can describe it in complete sentences.)
Me: Not bad for your first presidential election, was it? (Classic motherly understatement, of course.)
La Petite: We are so excited here! (Most of the newspaper staff are Obama supporters. The notable exception is the editor-in-chief. Will he be able to keep the coverage unbiased?)
Me: You are witnessing history. (Um, duh, mother, couldn't you think of a better way to say this?) I can't think, I'm near tears.
La Petite: So am I.
So we'll leave it at that, folks, the mother-daughter text message conversation on the edge of a historic moment in United States history. It's no Gettysburg Address, but it'll do. It'll do.
Isn't it great when they really get absorbed by the truly important events? Rebekah was upstairs watching the results come in when I went to bed. "He got Pennsylvania, mom! They're really excited about that!" By morning, she was able to explain WHY they were excited. Me so proud.
(For the record: we're a Canadian family, living in Canada. This was a RIVETTING election for more than Americans.)
Posted by: Ilona | November 06, 2008 at 08:23 AM
Riveting describes it well!
Posted by: Daisy | November 06, 2008 at 08:05 PM