You won’t often find my political opinion on here.  Snarky and self deprecating are sort of my thing, but times like this, one must take pause from all the snark.  

Yesterday was a big election, one for the books, one with much at stake, and one that I, along with many others, took very seriously.  In the hours before the votes were counted, and all the wine was consumed, I found myself day-dreaming.  I was dreaming about that glass ceiling shattering, I was dreaming about my 10 year old niece, Jasmine, learning about this historic night in school and truly believing that she could do absolutely anything.  

20 years ago, when I was Jasmine’s age, my best friend and I would hang out in her basement and play, like so many little girls.  But Shannon and I weren’t playing wedding or happy housewives.  Shannon and I were forming clubs like TKOE (Take Kare of Our Earth…ok, so we couldn’t spell,) pretending to be directors making great plays, or editors of major magazines, and even playing president.  Shannon would pretend to be the first female president, and I would pretend to be her right-hand gal.  Last night before the polls closed, I texted Shannon (who may very well still be our first female president…seriously, she’s pretty badass) and recalled the way that we used to play, as hopeful and empowered young ladies.  We spent the rest of the night texting as we began to realize that our dreams, and the dreams of the little girls that we used to be, slipped away.  

Then we cried…and cried.  I cried myself to sleep.  Seriously, I haven’t done that since I found out that N’Sync wouldn’t be putting out another album.  This morning I woke up feeling despondent.  It still doesn’t feel real.  All that progress we have made over the last hundred years feels like it has slipped away completely, and I felt completely lost.  As I was waiting in line at the drive-through of a certain coffee shop, a quote from one of my favorite movies came into my head: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing.  And no good thing ever dies.”  It pulled me out of my slump momentarily as more and more cars pulled in behind me, needing caffeine and perhaps an emotional pick-me-up too.  With those beautiful words ringing in my ear, I decided to pass along the hope.  I paid for the woman’s coffee behind me, maybe she supported Trump, maybe she didn’t vote at all, or maybe she was feeling just like me.  And maybe buying her coffee encouraged her to buy the person’s coffee behind her, and so on and so on.  Maybe not…but I feel hopeful that I at least made her day a little better.  It made me think, these next 4 years will be a challenge, and maybe they will be a nightmare, but I promised myself this morning as I took my first sip of joe, that I will not lose hope.  I hope you all can do the same.