Thoughts on Election Day

A couple weeks ago, Fiona came home with a flyer from school about upcoming Student Council elections. As a 3rd grader, she is now eligible to run for office. I asked her if she was interested as I was about to throw it in the recycle pile - and was quite surprised when she said she was. [Recycling halted]

I kept the flyer and occasionally asked her over the next few days. She consistently said she wanted to run - so last week, we made a pit stop at Target to buy supplies for her campaign poster. We finally had time to sit down on Sunday to work on it. When she said that she didn't want to anymore. After a few questions, I determined that she was backing out because she was nervous about the speech she had to make. I told her that I would support her no matter what she chose, but if she was not doing something she was excited about because she didn't want to make a speech, I thought that was a pretty bad reason.

After a couple deep breaths, Fiona agreed. She would do it. So we set about making her poster. Because although she has an incredibly artistic bestie and a mom who makes a living through words, she decided to have ME help with the poster and Ev help with the speech [I also took a couple deep breaths]. Thankfully, I perfected the art of bubble letters in my middle school years and put that superpower to work. I bubbled lettered and she very carefully painted her poster. It turned out great - and her sibs got their own posters to work on too.

Then she sat down with Mike to write her speech. She did such a great job and wrote it all herself (with just a little coaching from Mike and me). She practiced it multiple times (including FaceTime with Auntie) and was ready and confident. Ev was also running for 4th grade student council so these two rather shy ladies were really boosting each other up. It was awesome.

Tuesday morning, before she left, I reminded her to speak loudly, slowly, and clearly. And that we were proud of her no matter what happened. And how important it is to be both a gracious winner and a gracious loser. So if her head wasn't spinning by the time she got on the bus, well, she probably wasn't listening to me ...

She smiled at me at pick up that afternoon. I asked her how it went. She said she didn't win. But it was okay and she was proud that she tried - and that there was always next year. Ev didn't win either. No lie, Ms. Katie and I were hoping they either both won or both did not.  I think they are both sad, but will continue to boost each other up in their disappointment.

We've had just a couple sad moments the last two evenings. But overall, she knows she did something out of her comfort zone and she feels good about it. That's what I want for her more than anything. She should be proud! She also told me that she congratulated the girls in her class who did win and is genuinely happy for them.

So ... she worked hard, spoke from her heart, tried her best, and was gracious in defeat. Maybe all Election Day candidates can learn something from our youngest politicians ...