Let me just come out and say it: I've never been a big fan of Hillary.

For this election cycle entire -- especially during the primaries leading up to the DNC (and about a month afterward) -- I've been a staunch Bernie supporter, going so far as to verbally reject the concept of voting for a person (Hillary) whom I found out-of-step with my [quite left] politics, time and time again, and I'd so much vote Jill Stein that simply the "lesser of two evils," etc., etc., even if it was, as everyone loves to say, "a throwaway vote."

I would watch the debates between Hillary and Bernie. I found her voice grating, shrill. I internally seethed when I saw the videos that circulated of her interacting with young people asking tough questions or challenging her on issues.

And then, at some point, something changed. I softened. My anger, in retrospect, felt shameful and silly. I'd talk to my wife, who had previously been 100% for Bernie, as well, and we'd both taken similar, individual turns toward appreciating Hillary. I'd see things she'd said and laugh, feeling a genuine sort of camaraderie with her movement against Trump. I looked at her career and -- though I'd understood this previously -- it made me proud of her, all that she's accomplished, particularly in the face of the misogynistic, patriarchal society we live in, that Trump and his supporters embody. And I couldn't not get swept up in that.

I don't view her as a perfect candidate. I'm still saddened by the politicking of the DNC, the resistance against Bernie Sanders. Hell, I still have my Bernie sticker hanging up above my desk at home. Yet now, when I see Hillary, I actually smile, proud as hell to have cast my [early] vote for the first woman president.