My #GoVote Tuesday #ThoughtfulTuesday #travelswithjuhi

This #ThoughtfulTuesday post may just sound like a rant. I’m ok with classifying it as such. I’m literally just going to take you through my day.

I knew I had to vote today. I made sure to go at 6:10 am to ensure that I could vote before I took the bus to NYC. With commuting I always feel like you never really know what the end of the day commute will be like. In order to make sure I did not miss my chance to vote I went early in the am.

Suffice to say I voted, as I always do but I once again came to think about our system of voting in this country.

I entered my middle school gymnasium to find folks who were not ready for the voters. I was not the first one there and others were waiting before me.

I walked in to sign my ballot to overhear folks informing me how this was their first time helping and although they took a course on how to assist on Election Day they had no idea what they were doing. One individual informed me that they could not hear anything the instructor of the course said and so they were “winging it.”

I eventually voted, in that little not so private voting booth we still utilized and left the gymnasium with one thought.

Untrained citizens are operating an archaic voting system. If you disagree you have every right to but for me and for the experience I had the voting system just seems so outdated for the modern era in which we live. Add to that the fact that in all the recent years I have gone to vote I have never once been asked to produce any form of ID to verify my identity. Why don’t we ask? In the day and age we live it should be automatic to ask for identity and verify. I would not be offended. Frankly, I’d be glad. Each Election Day I walk in with my license and each Election Day I walk out with it still in my wallet. Why are we not asking? Am I missing something?

I guess I should be thankful that my name was at least on the list at my district. My partner’s name wasn’t even at his polling location even though he has voted there many times. Again, untrained citizens operating an archaic system. I thank those that volunteer but wish that we, as a country, trained those individuals. If we ask people for their time to perform a task we must also train them accordingly.

I proceeded to leave the polling place to walk to the bus stop to take the bus into the city. My normal daily #travelswithjuhi #commuterlife. I got on the bus, found my seat and began to thaw out from the cold. All was well until the manspreading that began to occur next to me. Shout out to Alli Brachman who educated me on this term. No, I did not know the term for this behavior that had been occurring beside me on buses, trains, airplanes, etc., for most of my life until Alli educated me. Thank you Alli :).

Now that I know what manspreading is I am more aware of it and also very tired of it. The gentleman on the bus next to me began to take over all the space in my area as well. Not only did he spread his legs nice and wide but began to prop his elbows by his sides. One takeover of space was not enough. I refuse to accept this behavior. As a petite woman I have dealt with this type of behavior my entire life. Folks who do not believe I require much space for I am small. Whatever you think I need is different from what I am entitled to. This may sound petty or juvenile but my space is my space. I’ve come to nudge back in this situations and take the space in my bus seat, my airplane seat, my train seat that is rightfully mine. However, that does not mean it does not irritate me each time that I must advocate for my space.

Thankfully the bus ride in this am was quick. I quickly came off the bus and began to walk my daily 12 blocks to FIT. As per usual I encountered an individual who could not be bothered with pushing open the door just a bit for the person right behind them, me. I’ve often encountered the folks at the Port Authority that cannot be bothered with the courtesy of just pushing the door a bit as they walk out because really there is always someone right behind them. Nope. This morning I had the door almost slam in my face twice for the person right in front of me could not careless. Does it truly take that much to push the door open for those coming behind you? I truly just don’t understand it.

Isn’t there enough lack of common courtesy in this world already? Fortunately my irritation began to fade, as it often does, as I began my walk to work. My faith in humanity slowly becoming restored as a random gentleman opened the door for me into the place where I stopped for breakfast. He and I were both entering the same place and so why not hold the door open? What happens most often is that I become frustrated by one act of selfishness to be greeted by another act of kindness. Truly it does not take much. I just wish we all operated from a place of kindness all the time.