Vote Shelly for President

   Utah's voting system is very different than what I am used to.  We still vote delegate style.  It takes a while to explain but essentially our cities are divided into precincts that vote for a small number of delegates in a caucus meeting to represent them in the preliminary vote.  Those candidates who make the preliminary vote will go on to a general election where everyone can vote.  If you have a favorite candidate you better hope your Delegate likes them too or you may not get a chance to vote for them in the general election.  I understand why this voting system is in place but I can also see downsides to it too.  Putting those feelings aside I wanted to get involved in the political process more intimately and went to our precinct's Republican caucus tonight.  At the caucus we are voting in the delegates that we want to represent us for the next two years.  I actually went with the intention of running to be voted as one of our precincts Delegates.  I had no idea what to expect but I wanted to be more involved.
   What happened at that meeting tonight was totally unexpected.  I didn't stand up to run for Delegate, instead I stood up to run for Precinct Chair.  That is equivalent to running for president of our neighborhood's political interests (at least the Republican's interests anyway because it was a Republican caucus.)  I was running against one other person so I had to answer questions.  You would have thought that I was running for President of the United States.  I was asked all kinds of questions on my political views.  I am normally so shy and afraid of people looking at me that I am still in shock that I did something so totally out of character for me.  
   I thought I did rather well answering the questions considering that this was my first caucus attendance and I was totally unprepared for the grilling I had just received.  I didn't win as Precinct Chair but I did ultimately become an alternate Delegate.  I had many people come up to me afterwards and tell me how much they liked my answers and that they were hoping that I would win.  I have been wanting to get out of my comfort zone more and this was a huge leap into the very uncomfortable zone.  Funny thing is that even though I was terrified, I rather enjoyed the experience.