I'm pretty proud to say that since becoming eligible to vote almost half my lifetime ago (yeesh) I've participated in most elections. It was hard at first because I was voting by absentee ballot as a registered voter in New York living in Massachusetts, and I might have missed some non-presidential elections because of that extra step in getting the paperwork.

Once I became a full Massachusetts resident, I've been a regular voter.

But I've never exercised my democratic right as much as I have during this calendar year.

Election Day might have been the only time this year I didn't actually have to vote.

There was nothing going on in my area.

But every other day of the year there's been some kind of political action.

It started when President Obama tabbed Senator John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Early in the year there was a primary, and then in June the election to fill Kerry's Senate seat.

The winner of that seat, Ed Markey, was a member of the House of Representatives from the Fifth Congressional District, which includes Framingham.

So since that election there has been another round of primaries, and the whole year of musical chairs ends with today's election for that congressional seat.

I'm not going to lie - seeing all the political action around here has made me think that maybe politics is the way to go at some point in my life.

I'm sure there's a lot of unsavory stuff that comes along with political office…but maybe I could someday run for that Fifth Congressional District seat and make a difference that way.

If I don't decide to go that route…well, you'd better believe I'll be voting in the election that decides who does.