Standing at the voting booth I take a moment to stare at the screen. Up to the last minute I'm still deciding who I should vote for. My first time voting in a presidential election, my first primary. A historical vote in my life and in a historical election. However voting democrat, I had a hard decision to make.
One could be a powerful first woman president. One could be a revolutionary first Jewish president.
For the past year, I have been experiencing peer pressure on all sides. I could go along with the popular trend among other millennials on the "Feel the Bern" bandwagon. Or I could go along with my mother, my best friend, and my best friend's mother, who have been pro Hillary from the beginning.
I listen to everybody, not as a debater but as a reporter. But now I have learned that when you know both sides, it is difficult to pick one. But as every democrat will tell you, we have to vote.
I knew how everybody in my life wanted me to vote, but I've always believed in going against the crowd and being an individual. I have watched every debate on YouTube multiple times. I listened to all the political commentators on both sides and the many polls. I watched and read everything I could.
That's why it was good that I went alone. With nobody here to make up my mind. I walked in by myself, with my own thoughts and feeling and no one else's.
I stand at the booth, staring at the screen. And in that moment, I did what voters should do. I stepped outside of myself.
Outside of being a woman. Outside of being a millennial. Outside of every Facebook meme. I had to figure out who I felt would get the most done in the White House and who is prepared to take on the office.
Now I hear people whine that our votes aren't going to matter. But I voted and that matters to me.