It took me a while to finally think of a personal experience corresponding to the topic of my blog. I racked my brain for what seemed like an eternity (like 30 minutes), and it finally hit me. When I was in Seventh Grade, living in Rochester, Michigan, my parents went to a dinner with some of their friends. On the way home from said dinner, they called my sister and me at home and informed us that they had a surprise. Before I go any further- I should give you a little more back story. At the time (2004), I was a little bit obsessed with P. Diddy (not really sure what name he goes by now). I thought he was the coolest man ever. He was a hardcore raper, he had his own clothing line, and so much more. I know, it's embarrassing, don't judge- I was a child. So back to the real story. My parents get home, and inform us that the following night we will be going to a dinner down town for Diddy's Vote or Die campaign. Needless to say, I died. I was so excited. I was going to get to meet my hero, the person I thought was the coolest man in the world!
The next evening arrived and I was happier than a kid in a candy store. We get to the restaurant and are ushered into a private room in the back of one of Detroit's nieces restaurants. Of course, Sean (I thought I would use is real name), had not yet arrived. Ten minutes later, when he did arrive, however, I somehow managed to remain calm. Like the cool guy he was, P. Diddy came around and spoke to us for about ten minutes. He asked me a series of questions, one of them being, "Are you registered to vote?". My first instinct after being asked this question was, "Wait...seriously? I'm 13 years old, did you really just ask me if I was registered to vote?". After starting, bewildered, at him for long enough to make myself look somewhat stupid, I responded with "No, I'm in seventh grade." This event occurred prior to thinking that it was cool to be older. That night was the night I thought P. Diddy was un-cool. Although I didn't think he was the coolest man alive, he did a lot for the 2004 election. He was been quoted saying:
Although the election might not have necessarily gone as many would have hoped, the important part is that so many more young people got involved. What Diddy did in this Vote or Die Campaign, was make things interesting. He took an issue that many young people saw as boring and brought it in to the fore front of pop culture. He was one of the first to make politics interesting. Many people who were not even registered to vote became registered- voted. This campaign was only the beginning, and I'm glad I've gotten to see the amount of pop culture icons who have a say in politics grow.
