Stories from the Field
printer friendly >
Stories Archive >
Do you have a story to share? Send your one-page narrative to principal@osu.edu. Please indicate if we may use your name in the “contributor” credits.
I Made a Difference
As a retired principal, when I moved to my beautiful lakefront retirement community, I was eager to sign up to vote and support our local schools. I did not want to be one of those retired persons who said, “I’ve gotten mine and I’ve educated my children and I’m not going to do any more.” So I took myself to our local election registration office and signed up. I learned that I could vote the first time at the Board of Elections since I was a new resident. I cast my vote for the school levy.
On Election Day, the local paper was projecting that the school levy would lose, but absentee ballots and new resident ballots had not yet been counted. Within a few days, there were big headlines in the local paper, “School Levy Wins by 5 Votes.” It went on to say that with all votes from new residents and absentee ballots now counted, the school levy had won by five votes!
This was my first time voting in such a small community, since I had always lived and voted in the city. I felt that democracy was not only at work, but that I had made a difference. I no longer take my vote for granted.
