Where do I start on this one? There’s so much to say. Is anyone having a voting dilemma? Feeling discourage? Does it even matter if we vote because everyone seems corrupt in some way or another???! Ok, all of this has seriously gone through my head. My favorite binging and hobby lately have been watching, reading articles and comments and all kinds of news, fake news, conspiracies, whatever you want to call it! and not only lefty news but I want to so badly understand the conservative side and play devils advocate. It makes me want to forget about it all and perhaps live in my own world. But guess what?! I’m part of this world, I’m part of this country so I can’t do that, WE can’t do that. I was literally going to write about something else this week put since big events happened that shook me like the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and that NO ONE was directly charged for the murder of Breonna Taylor, I felt the need to talk about the importance of voting.

I like seeing the big picture of things because seeing bits and pieces can sometimes make us give too much of our energy where is not being used efficiently. It’s okay to be upset about our world, our country because trust me! I know how much I have been, but we need to think about how we can efficiently use this buildup rage inside of us to create change. First of all, there’s only so much you can do, and as much as you want to save the world from all bad and evil it doesn’t necessarily work that way. Of course, one person can make a difference but realistically there’s way too many issues going on in the world, in this country, and let’s not forget in our own lives, for you to tackle all of it at once. You would go mad if you tried to. Something I’ve learned is that if you want real lasting change to happen it starts within yourself. As much as you want to change the world it’s going to be really hard to do that if you’re not even helping yourself in the first place. In that process of taking care of yourself it doesn’t mean to completely forget about everything else either. It means that whatever kind of positive change you’re creating within yourself or talking about, you should also be applying it in the physical world. In other words, don’t just think about it, don’t just talk about it, but do it! Those 3 things have to work together holistically for there to be real efficient change.    

You can be extremely disappointed of everything going on and feeling hopeless, but let’s be honest, feeling that way and not doing anything is not creating any change either. Use those feelings to encourage you to do something, anything, because anything is better than nothing. You might ask yourself; do I really have to vote for the lesser of two evils? Don’t think about it that way because that’s you seeing the glass half empty instead of half full. How about we start thinking about it in a way where “okay it’s not the perfect candidates, but this one is the closest to a better direction”. For example, when you find a job that you need and you know you can do better, do you pass on it or take it? You can keep looking and it could be months until someone hires you at your ideal job or you could’ve just taken the job opportunity from the beginning, gotten more experience that can later lead you to scoring an even better job. It will always be efficient to do anything instead of waiting all the time for things to go your way.  Even when things seem to be getting you nowhere, all of those things that might seem insignificant are truly steppingstones to where you will end up being. The point is not to give up. The point is to start seeing those small events that will lead to a better tomorrow and to believe it will. We can’t give up because everything might seem to be going downhill. When things feel the worst, those are the times that our actions matter the most!

It’s easy to pinpoint all of the bad specially when it seems that’s all there is going around, but I know you want better days like I do. By focusing our attention in all the negative I feel that discourages us to do less, and technically we continue to perpetuate all the ongoing problems because we feel too depressed to even do anything. So, does it make a difference if you vote or not? What does one do when one cares? Are words good enough or do they need to be followed by actions? Voting is an act of caring, voting is your right to be heard, yes you matter, yes your voice matters. If you matter, then why wouldn’t’ your vote matter? If you believe in your right to protest, then why wouldn’t you believe in the right to vote. When you go out to protest you physically see others united around you, your ballot is the same thing because you want your voice to be heard and you’re standing up for what you believe in. Maybe you might say It’s not the same because a protest can be a movement against the very system you are being asked to vote towards. Well someone is going to take those seats no matter what, someone is going to be the next president, someone is going to be the next Senator, the next Representative, and guess what? we might not have the best candidates all the time but are you really ok with putting the worst of the worst because not enough people believed in voting. You’re still going to be protesting over the same things either way because who is calling out the shots? The same people you could’ve potentially voted out.

You’re not voting for the lesser of two evils you’re voting for a better tomorrow. If you believe there’s a better tomorrow which I know you do, then it doesn’t matter if we start small, but baby steps start creating the future and the big picture. Let’s vote towards the best option because even if it’s not the most ideal it is steppingstones to where we want to be. Let’s start electing the people that care not about having power, but care for you and I and our planet.  Little by little we can start re shaping our government and system in our favor but enough of us have to care. I hope you realize that before you go and criticize our system, are you doing your part to change it? It’s not efficient to criticize it all and not do anything about it. Elections are extremely important because we elect the people calling the big shots about our rights as humans and our planet. This is your home! This is your planet too! When you care for something you do something about it! Like when you go to school to have an education and career you do it because you believe in it! You know that becoming whatever it is you choose isn’t just going to come to you, it comes to you because you went looking for it, because you worked for it! Because you acted on it! Real change doesn’t happen because you simply asked for it, change starts happening when you start acting on it.

The truth is that balancing things out will always be a never-ending challenge. Just like life, we will always have challenges to overcome but when they come, do we just give up? There’s always going to be something new we need to fight for. If it’s not racial tensions it will be climate change, it will be the next pandemic, the next natural disaster whatever might come next we must not give up in acting upon what we believe is right. Think about all those leaders that have gone against the system and what they have done to pave the way for the rights we have now. It was people that believed in a better tomorrow, that never gave up. I’m a woman and once upon a time we couldn’t vote and our voices were not valued, now we can vote! so why wouldn’t you vote? I can keep going on about how your vote has a positive ripple effect more than you can imagine. Voting means I’m here and my voice matters, I’m here and I do care. Be selfless, be compassionate because a vote is not only about our own personal interest but about choosing the greater good, where issues like human rights matter where you shouldn’t put a price to debunking the importance of such issues of morality.

Please take voting seriously because unconscious voting can be as harmful as not voting at all. Going in and making your pick without doing your own research is like choosing to stay at a one-star Airbnb where you didn’t only lack to notice the one star because the house looked pretty but didn’t read comments indicating there was roaches in the house. Do you read comments and reviews before going into a restaurant? Do you do research on your doctors and like second opinions? When it’s important, you will take the time to do the research so treat voting the same way. Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers didn’t write a well written guideline for who qualifies to be president that’s why someone that hasn’t been a politician has a fair shot of becoming one. Voting is not about who is more entertaining to you, and even if my favorite actor were to run for president, I wouldn’t just choose him because I know this is much serious than that. We shouldn’t wait for the worst to happen to start acting on what we believe in either. What we believe in can be quite twisted sometimes and put priority to things that are not as important. We can spend hours binging tv shows, playing video games, on social media and can’t seem to take voting seriously. How can we want a better tomorrow when we are not prioritizing things like voting? Is like this pandemic, do you believe in it? I don’t only believe in it because I lost 3 relatives to it already, but because I’m not going to wait for another person close to me to die to start wearing a mask. I want to say I did everything I could to avoid the worst from happening. You can believe in conspiracies all you want, but are you thinking about what really makes sense? Whether you believe in the virus or not wearing a mask is the safest most responsible decision you can make, better safe than sorry. If it’s true you’re protecting yourself and everyone around you but if it isn’t, you’re not a fool to have believed it you were thinking of the greater good and being responsible, how is that bad? So, when you cast your vote you know your intentions and no matter what happens after that you can at least say you’re always trying to do the right thing.

I know it’s hard to believe in anyone right now. There’s so much hypocrisy going around how can you ever trust politicians when they lie to your face right? Some of you can’t even trust your family and friends how can you trust anyone else. I get it, but do you really stop believing in everything and everyone and assume misery by default? Believing in nothing is still a belief, don’t you rather believe in something, in someone? Bottom line no candidate is going to do a perfect job even if you were to become president you wouldn’t get everything right either. Don’t stop believing that there is good in this world that is worth fighting for. Not voting is giving up your voice and giving up on the future. You don’t have to idolize any of the candidates to vote for them either. Give candidates a shot at what they say but choose wisely and use commonsense, because if one of them lies 60% of the time and the other one 10%, who will you bet on? Which one make more sense to you? Write a list of why you would vote for who because voting for someone just because you agree on one matter and ignore so many other important ones, does that one thing really outweigh the rest?

Voting is only a tiny part of manifesting that physical change. It is like when you write down your goals, that’s your first step into making them real by placing them on paper and making them physical. Change continues in our everyday lives and how we choose to live it and what we choose to do with it. Think it, say it, do it. Like Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. In the end we will always need leaders to lead the way. If we want to get to a place where our leaders are people that care more about us, we need to start electing them little by little and continue to elect better ones every single time, but that can only happen if we take action. Keep rooting for the best like you root for your favorite sports team or a love one to succeed. Don’t expect perfection either, electing the best option is part of the ongoing pursuit of a better tomorrow but we play an important part in it too. We shouldn’t just leave all of the work to the higher ups, because it is also our job and duty to collaborate whenever we can and when the time arises. This is a collective movement where your vote does matter.       

Cast your vote, let your voice be heard.

Thank you for being here and don’t forget to stay kind, stay safe, and stay ZEN!

Love,

Zenia