Vintage: Presidential Elections, 2004

I re-discovered that my Photobucket account, which contains some pictures I have from high school and early college. Among these were photos from a rally I went to for former presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

I remember election season in 2004. My first time voting. Everyone remembers their first time. The air was so full of hope back then. How young we were, how naive...

Also, I think I might've gotten extra credit in my AP Government class for attending this. Hopefully I did. That class was hella hard.

My friends and I arrived at the Johnson Center at George Mason University early to get a good spot. The evening involved lots of standing around waiting.

We were waiting a long, long time.  You can tell by this disgruntled-ness on Corianne's face.

There was plenty to look at while we waited. Here are some of the supports who got to hang out at the front of the stage and wave signs. You can't tell really in this photo, but this group has a sign that says "Armenians For Kerry". It's nice to know that Kerry supported the Armenian community.

And, of course, there were the usual crazies there with their signs. I can't remember what exactly it said now, but this one looks like it says something about Kerry killing babies.

Here are some random political type peoples talking.

And eventually John Kerry came up to speak, looking slightly like Sam the Eagle from The Muppet Show.

I feel like this was my first political rally, and I remember feeling so cool and patriotic at the time. I was pretty excited when I started college that fall and got to turn in my absentee ballot (less thrilling than going to a polling place, but still nice). Of course, as we all know, Kerry lost the election.

But still, you'll never forget your first Presidential election.