A few days ago, a colleague asked me what it felt like to run for office. I flippantly answered, “It’s a lot like being pregnant.” I was cracking a rather weak joke, but in retrospect it is actually not that bad an analogy. Especially considering the timing of my announcement with respect to Election Day — nine months!
- The enormity of what you are doing is sometimes frightening and other times exhilarating.
- No one else can do it for you.
- Only someone who has been in the same condition can truly appreciate what you are experiencing.
- It is time delimited with no way of grasping what your life is going to be like going forward.
- Everyone has advice.
My favorite piece of advice so far is from a seasoned candidate who has run for office four times. I spoke to him after I had made the decision to run, but before I made the formal announcement. He said, “Ann, write down everything you know because the minute you announce, you are going to become instantly stupid.”
I laughed. He said, “just wait.”
Of course I did not write down everything I know because I had no idea he meant literally everything. Everything!
How to put a shirt on right side out. No joke. Getting dressed may require my husband’s critical eye before I leave the house for the next eight months.
Which street to turn on to pick my son up from school. I am considering using my GPS to get home from work without making too many detours. My office is a mile and a half from my home with a grand total of three turns.
How many minutes to microwave the coffee I let get cold because I forgot I had made a cup. The answer is one.
Thus far I have retained knowledge of my family member’s names, but I am wondering if I should write those down somewhere lest I call my sons by my campaign manager’s name. They have been remarkably tolerant of being summoned by one another’s names over the years, but I am not sure they would appreciate being called Michele.
Your mind is so crammed with details you do not want to forget, the basics get lost in the avalanche. New unfamiliar information crowds out habitual knowledge. I have vague memories of being this scatter-brained when I was pregnant with my boys.
The experience thus far has made me much more sympathetic of gaffs I can recall from prominent national campaigns. These politicians likely were not unintelligent people or lying to the voters. They were “candidate stupid.” I want to apologize in retrospect for laughing at them.
Scratch that. There is nothing to apologize for. It is funny. People are going to laugh at me. Some already have. I am going to do my best to laugh with them.
Ann Fuller for Florida House District 52