This diary, my first at Dkos, attempts to describe my own experiences growing up around the world, and how this has affected by political beliefs and my decision to support Barack Obama. While I probably would have ended up an Obama supporter regardless--I'm a college student in Illinois, after all--I've had some time to think about how and why exactly it is that I support Sen. Obama.
My early, early upbringing isn't particularly spectacular: my parents, both teachers, lived with me and my two younger brothers in suburban Minnesota. I went to a public school and wasn't terribly concerned with politics. My earliest political memories are going to vote with my mom and dad (and hearing my dad say that he voted for a republican for mayor, since it was someone he knew personally and trusted) and some sort of fundraiser/campaign event for Paul Wellstone in 1996. I'm not sure exactly what the event was, or how my parents got invited (although my dad did teach at the same high school as Sen. Wellstone's daughter), but my whole family somehow ended up at the event. I remember shaking Wellstone's hand, and, for some reason, being very very impressed with the fact that the house had two basements. Such was my 4th-grade state of mind.
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