This week, I am grateful for a couple of things. I went to my very first protest on Saturday. I was on the, I was on the fence. I, I tried to go scope things out in Ann Arbor the previous Saturday, and I missed that protest time. And so I felt moved to, you know, do something. And even then, it was tough. I, I personally have a hard time doing new things when I — when there’s uncertainty about how things work, especially the small logistics will get to me. Like well what do I — where do I park? And what if there’s not a lot of people there, and where do I go, and then what do I do when I’m there? I am always full of questions for myself when it comes to new things. Like, well, what do I — where do I park? And what if there’s not a lot of people there, and where do I go? And then what do I do when I’m there? I’m always full of questions for myself when it comes to new things. So a shot in the arm came from a former teacher co-worker of mine who was also going with a current co-worker of hers. And that’s kind of what I needed to push me over the finish line, so to speak, to convince me, like, to know I had someone else there that I knew and that I could use as an anchor of sorts. And I have to say, I spent — I was pretty — I, you know, I can be pretty introverted. And so my approach to the protest was, this time at least, anyway, that I wanted to be someone who was there. You know, I kind of — it’s almost like every vote matters — I kind of felt like you know, every person at a protest matters, you know, it’s another person, and so I wasn’t there chanting, I wasn’t there — I didn’t have a sign with me, although maybe next time.
But I can tell you that I probably spent a solid half an hour, and I feel so stupid saying this, about half an hour fighting back tears just to myself. I can sometimes get emotional when it comes to certain matters in life. I was grateful that I was wearing sunglasses so my friend could not see me like that. There was just something — I’m currently living in a pretty small rural area. And you never quite know — you never know who’s gonna come out for something like this. And you know, it — on a relative scale, it was a small amount of people, but it was probably five to ten times more people than I expected for this area. You know, I’m probably overshooting it, but I felt like it was maybe a thousand people lining the streets, which is phenomenal for where I live. And it was seeing so many people from so many age, ages, age range, whatever, with so many different signs covering different topics, and that feeling of knowing that there’s so many other people around you who want things to go well, who just are interested in like caring for each other and making sure that we support one another as Americans, not as political enemies or allies, whatever it may be, but just as humans, you know. It was really touching to me, and even, you know, every single time a car would drive by, just because they’re going through the area, and you could hear them honk and wave or lift their fists in the air — it just did a number on me, I don’t know. It gave me hope, and — I don’t know. I almost can’t put it into words. I didn’t even know why I was tearing up sometimes, it just felt right, and it felt good. So I am grateful for that.