i didn't vote either.

i just read a friend's post about not voting in the 2008 election. i could literally copy and paste her entire post, and that would sum up perfectly how i feel.

i wish i had worked harder to make sure i got my absentee ballot.

i wish i could've been a part of making history.

i wish i could tell future generations that my first vote was for obama.

i have very few regrets in life, and not voting in this election has become one of my bigger ones. can i reason why i didn't care enough to secure my absentee ballot? i'm not sure. like some americans, i had lost hope in our country. for a period of time, i seriously considered living elsewhere in the world after graduation because i didn't see reason to stay. i disagreed with decisions that our government was making. i became frustrated, and i guess i just didn't want to care anymore. maybe i was "certain" that others would vote for obama, and my vote wouldn't have "mattered". i don't know.

three weeks worth of posts are missing. during this period in october, i was not in a very good place mentally. japan was driving me up a wall with some of its strange habits and customs ~ culture shock, i suppose. (maybe it's a matter of "getting used to it". but one thing i doubt i'd ever get used to is seeing girls pile on fifty layers of mascara in a restaurant or moving subway car. this morning, i saw a woman walk onto the hankyu with a mirror held up to her face. she couldn't wait five seconds until she was actually on the train?!) anyway, the point i'm trying to make is that being here in japan has made me realize that i do love america. and i'm ready to see america change for the better. but by the time i had come to realize this, it had already become late october.