How lucky can a person be? In the midst of this extremely challenging year, I had one of the most amazing and auspicious experiences of my (rather) long life.

I volunteered to work at the balloting center at the Hawaii Convention Center. At first, I hesitated when the call for volunteers went out months ago. Would I be here in Hawaii, or would I be traveling? Did I really want to give up three whole days to sit and open envelopes and sort ballots? Was it safe to do in the midst of the pandemic?

These thoughts almost dissuaded me. Thank goodness they didn’t.

At the end of October, my three days of volunteering began. I remember the first day when I walked into the huge room at the convention center. It was filled with tables, computers and the boxes of envelopes that held the mailed-in ballots, each one representing the heart and soul of a democratic country. I was awestruck with the magnitude and privilege of the task.

People were diligently working. Were they Republicans? Were they Democrats? I never knew, and it never mattered. What did matter was that we were all fiercely protecting the sanctity of every American’s voting rights.

That meant that every envelope that was received was opened and sorted by district. That meant that every ballot was removed, first from the outer envelope, then from its security sleeve.

Next, when the envelopes were removed from the table, every ballot was unfolded and piled up waiting to be tabulated. I realized how awesome it was for me to be participating in such an important job.

Now that the election is over, people are celebrating or not. What people should be doing is thanking their lucky stars that they live in a democratic country where they had the opportunity to vote for a candidate and to know that their ballot would be counted. How fortunate we are. The system we live under — a democracy — has afforded us the chance to be a part of the incredible process of selecting a new leader for our country.

It’s over. The ballots are counted. They tell a magnificent story. As we watched the numbers on the news maps change as each batch of ballots was tabulated, you could almost see the faces of each citizen light up with the promise of a new tomorrow. Will it be better than today? No one knows for sure, but we know we had a part in the process.

We all mattered, and our votes all mattered. No one can take that away from us. Now we must stand united, and our strength will light up the world.

Barbara Fuller is a retired teacher-in-charge at Olomana School at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.