Those of us in the UK will be going to the polls tomorrow to elect a new Prime Minister. It promises to be the closest general election for many years but how does the prospect of choosing a new leader make you feel?
Personally I love the general election, I always have done, even as a kid. I'll be staying up until the early hours watching the results come in. Somehow it wouldn't be right to not do this. It's our election, our chance to vote. If we can't take an interest in that then how can we complain when things don't go our way? I think what I find most exciting is that nobody really knows what is going to happen. They can publish all the polls in the world but when you get into that polling booth, you are absolutely free to vote for whoever you choose. It's too easy to take that freedom for granted. People died to give us that right - for goodness sake let's not waste it because of apathy or thoughts of, "oh they're all the same anyway."
A defining moment of my growing up occurred during one general election, I can't honestly remember which. The results were a real shock, not what had been predicted. I finally understood that adults, even those whom I had looked up to as being in a position of authority didn't really know what was going to happen. More than that, when I was old enough to vote, they wouldn't have any greater say in the outcome than I had. That was somehow a revelation to me. It marked something of a transition from all-accepting child to independent-thinking adult. Many years later, I've never forgotten that lesson. Democracy is priceless. Freedom is valuable beyond measure. Power is in all of our hands - don't waste it.
