Gubernatorial Aspirations
One of my most cherished experiences was serving in the 2008 Presidential Election. As a student at Evergreen State College and former Clover Park Technical College Associated Student Government Vice President, I was enrolled in many courses that led me toward political leadership. I was moved and influenced by Barack Obama's message was encouraged to attend the legislative district caucus that would determine our county delegates. It just so happened to be held on my birthday that year, so I felt a random urge to get up and speak in front of everyone at the caucus and run for delegacy. I won!
I went on to do the same at the Thurston County Democratic Convention where I remember then Governor Christine Gregoire walked by me and I said to her that Stephen Colbert told me to give my Wriststrong bracelet to her-she cracked up (he was selling these red bracelets that said Wriststrong on them and wanted us to give them to someone more influential than ourselves-mission accomplished, Colbert). I was so motivated for change that day. I remember them playing a video that was written and starring Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, another very influential person that played a part in my life. I knew that this was such an important day for not just me, but the county, state, and country. When we broke up into our legislative districts, I was in the same one as all of our then current political leaders-this was Olympia, and they all lived there during Session and happened to be my neighbors. I got up and ran again, but this time, it was a far bigger room full of people, a high school gym full of them, that were definitely not my age-they were political figures. I remember persuading them to vote for me with the promise that I would put my faith in Barack Obama as a leader (over Hillary Clinton) and represent him at our State convention held in Spokane later that year. I WON AGAIN-I felt so inspired! I did end up going to the state convention as a delegate, but did not run at the national level. I had actually skipped my college graduation to be there that day, and had a lot going on with school. I spent that entire summer campaigning for Obama at various caucuses and events around the state; marching in parades for him and encouraging citizens to vote Obama-I got involved in the Thurston County Democrats and was elected Precinct Committee Officer for the 22nd Legislative District in the College Precinct and had my name on the exact same ballot that got Barack Obama elected as the 44th United States of America President.
I ended up meeting my husband during all of that, and my political aspirations were put on hold. He has always encouraged me to continue that path and saw me going further, but it was a different time and I was a far different person than I am now (you'd never recognize the 2008 me).
Years later in 2014, I was invited to take a group of young campers to the Washington State Capitol Campout. I spent the night on the lawn of the Governor's Mansion with them. I played football with Governor Jay Inslee and a bunch of kids who kept calling him "Guvnah". It was glorious. We got to tour the entire mansion-Jay and Trudy even let us come in to the living quarters which is normally off limits to tours. I remember taking a selfie in the Governor's Mansion Library. I felt inspired again to get back into political leadership, but somehow lost that confidence and was embarrassed for leaving it behind in the first place.
Fast forward a few years and now I live in a different county, King County-the biggest county in the State of Washington-home of EVERYTHING-and I have a far different political viewpoint than I did before. I don't like that America has to commit to one party-either Democrat or Republican. I like tidbits of viewpoints from both parties. I am no longer just a Democrat, I am now declaring myself Independent. I work in business, have ran businesses, and agree with many Republican viewpoints. As for the Democratic Party, I have personally used food stamps, health benefits, homelessness programs, etc-which is why I used to be primarily Democrat. But, I have fought the good fight and overcome those obstacles on several occasions...which is why I don't believe in so many handouts that have been developed to support bad habits-we have far too many people surviving on government assistance and have no drive to succeed on their own, which is a major problem to me. I got through, why can't they? I want to put in place more programs that lead to overcoming obstacles and success and eliminate spendy projects that enable repeated patterns of negative actions.
This post is definitely not beauty related, and was definitely not written to change your current political viewpoints, but I started this blog to inspire others. Many people have told me that my experiences are inspirational and motivating, so after I visited the Washington State Capitol building yesterday and saw this picture in my camera roll when I got home, I was stunned at the "halo" surrounding me. It was a fluke accident (or divine intervention ;) and felt the urge to share with you all my political experiences and aspirations.
