Do you vote in political elections?

I vote. Not because I love politics. I don’t. I’d rather sit through a three-hour hold call with customer service than listen to most candidates talk. Opportunity u into But I still show up and do it.

Last election? Cost me a relationship with my own brother. He didn’t like who I voted for. Stopped talking to me like I kicked his dog or burned his house down. All I did was fill in a bubble on a piece of paper. That’s where we’re at now. Grown adults acting like ballots are personal attacks.

Here’s the thing. Voting isn’t about finding some perfect, glowing hero. That person doesn’t exist. Never has. You’re not picking a soulmate. You’re picking the least annoying option in a lineup of people who all think they should be in charge of millions of lives. It’s damage control. That’s it.

People love to say, “My vote doesn’t matter.” Cool. Then don’t complain when things go sideways. You opted out. You don’t get a voice and a shrug at the same time. That’s not how this works.

I don’t vote for parties. I don’t care about team jerseys or slogans or whatever catchy phrase they’re yelling this year. I vote independent. I look at the options, roll my eyes a few times, and pick the one who seems like they’ll do the least amount of damage. Sometimes that means choosing between what feels like a stick and a turd. Fine. I’ll still pick one.

Because not voting is still a choice. It just hands your say over to someone else. Probably someone louder, angrier, and way more convinced they’re right than you are.

I hate politics. I hate the noise, the arguing, the nonstop circus of it all. But I hate the idea of sitting back and letting other people decide everything even more. So I vote. Every time.

You don’t have to agree with me. You don’t have to like any of the candidates. You can hate all of them equally. That’s basically the standard experience. Just show up anyway.

If you want to vote for a stick, vote for the stick. At least you showed up and made a choice instead of hiding behind apathy like it’s some kind of personality trait.