I’ve been waiting for the day I wake up and realize that I’m all grown up. The more I anticipated this day, the more I realized that adulthood is not a destination you suddenly reach.  I expected some great change when I turned 18, 19, 20, and 21 and still nothing. But this morning I made a huge leap in the direction of grown-up-ness. It is election day and I voted. It was the first time that I have ever cast a ballot and some reason it was a big step for me towards feeling like a proper adult.

I live with some very intelligent and educated people who all have five years of age on me. Last night, we were gathered in our living room discussing the election. I can say truthfully, and somewhat reluctantly, that I have never seriously discussed politics with my own generation. The “adultness”  of the conversation left me somewhat in awe. The political terms and concepts being thrown around were new and caused me to feverishly research all the potential candidates the next morning. My most informing source was from the Georgia Straight found here:
http://www.straight.com/news/769716/straight-slate-2014-municipal-election-suggestions-your-vote. It summarizes the campaigns for candidates and offers some critical comparisons. Granted, it is biased, but nonetheless I found it to be a good starting place to formulate some opinions. My lack of previous political conversations and voting experiences made me question other residents participation. Apparently only 34.6% of residents cast ballots. That is a surprising and disappointing fact. Is democracy really that great if so few people are participating and expressing their voice?

To relate my voting experience back to the course, I index-searched “democracy.” According to Matthew Arnold, the combination of the rise democracy and the aristocracy create a favorable environment for anarchy (pp. 20). To me, this is counter intuitive. Democracy suggests that citizens are actively selecting the government, not being anarchists. Arnold’s suggestion to overcome this anarchy is through culture, education, and coercion. He states that culture and education would remove popular culture (pp. 20). This is ironic given that popular culture has become a source of political and democratic education such as the Georgia Straight was for me when deciding who to vote for. In conclusion, democracy is pretty neat, more people should participate, and I’m happy to say that it helped me feel like a real adult.