Many elementary schools hold mock elections for their students. It gives them an opportunity to experience the voting process and grow in their understanding of what an election is. The first school I taught in Virginia held a mock election in my fourth year teaching. I will always remember it, because of a wonderful little boy named Clinton and his zealous desire to see his candidate win.

Clinton was a smart little boy. He loved learning and absorbed everything that was going on around him. He came in on Election Day all fired up about voting and the candidate he wanted to win. He had listened to the T.V. ads and talked with his parents. Clinton was filled with reasons his man was the best man to be president.

As the other students filtered into the classroom, I heard a loud voice from the coat closet in the back of the classroom saying, “I can’t vote for him. My dad used to work for Perot.” I rushed to the back of the room just in time to hear the tail end of the conversation. Clinton was saying to a little boy named Kevin, “Do you know what he will do to our country?” “I don’t care,” Kevin replied, “I have to vote for Perot.

I called Clinton out of the coat closet and asked him if had been trying to persuade other children to vote for his candidate. “Yes, I have,” he said, “They don’t have any idea who to vote for.” “You know they can pick anyone they want for president,” I told him. “My guy is the guy,” he informed me. “You know this is not a real vote don’t you Clinton? We are just voting to see what voting is like,” I told him. “Oh! No! This is real,” he said. Clinton went on to tell me that he was the only one voting in his family in this election. His vote had to count. His candidate needed to win. The other candidates would destroy our country. Bush needed his vote!

He was right. Bush needed his vote. When he came in the next day he looked crestfallen, the election had not gone the way he wanted it to. He was now worried about what would happen to his country.

I loved Clinton’s passion for voting then and I still love it now. Clinton has been old enough to vote for years. I hope the disappoint he had in the American voting system in second grade hasn’t kept him from going to the polls.

Last Friday afternoon after his nap, I sat JDaniel down and explained that Aunt Michelle was coming up for the weekend so; mom and dad could go to Asheville. He had only two questions for me. “Which car are you going to take?” he wanted to know. I told him we were going to take both cars. Daddy needed his car to come home early than me on Sunday. The second question was “What are you going to do there?” I told him I was going to meetings with other people that had blogs. With those questions answered, he requested we go downstairs and have a snack. There were no tears or cries of don’t go.

When my sister arrived, JDaniel pointed his finger to the door and said, “Go Mommy!” I have to admit I was relieved that weren’t tears, but I was a little crushed that there weren’t tears.

My husband and I loved staying at the Renaissance Hotel in Asheville. The hotel and our room couldn’t have been any nicer. After staying at a budget hotel when we were at the beach, we felt like we were in the lap of luxury. We found a great restaurant for dinner Saturday night. A dinner that didn’t have either of us sharing parts of your meal with our little gourmet was unique for us.

The Type-A Conference was wonderful. I learned a lot from the panel of speakers that they had at each session as well as from the other bloggers in attendance. This conference is filled with people that have a passion for blogging and for their blogs. It was very inspiring to hear people from local, regional and national blogs share their visions. I now have a greater appreciation for how hard people work on their blogs and love their readers.

I literally had never met any of the bloggers there before. While I enjoyed meeting new to me bloggers,I had visited Things I Can’t Say and A Nut in a Nutshell on their blogs and knew they would be there. It was such an honor to sit with them on Saturday for a session or two and during the keynote speakers on Sunday. They are amazing women and I learned tons from both of them. If you haven’t visited their blogs, you really need to.

When I got home on Sunday night, JDaniel informed me he had partied all weekend. He partied at the zoo and then McDonald’s. There were parties in cousin made forts and all over the house. The house was well organized and clean when I got home. They must have partied neatly or my sister did a lot of cleaning up.

 
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