My cousin Mai Mohyeldin, voting for the first time in her life. Her niece Fareeda, looks on. Future generations of Egyptians will grow up knowing their civic responsibilities and rights in the wake of the revolution.By , NBC NewsAfter boycotting politics for much of their lives, my aunt Faten, 64, and Air Jordan 4s my cousins, Mai, 27, and Reham, 33, along with Reham two daughters, Habeeba, 6, and Fareeda, 1, braved the heat and stood in line to vote.Like millions Air Jordan 16s of other Egyptians, they were claiming a stake in their country. Their decisions were in the works for weeks, but it only took a few minutes to cast their ballots in what could be the most important choice any of them has made in shaping their country’s future.’We want to live . like human beings’: Egyptians votewas important to vote because these were the first elections after the revolution. The next president will have so much to do to put this country on a better path, which is what everybody wants, Mai says.As for my aunt Faten, she never imagined that she would vote in a genuine election in Egypt during her lifetime.Standing in front of the five story building where I once lived with my parents and brother, and where my extended family still lives, I saw myself 30 years earlier as a little boy looking out the back window of a car loaded with luggage heading to the airport.My parents had seen Egypt glory days in the 1960s and 1970s fade away after President Hosni Mubarak took power in 1981. So, they like so many others emigrated.There were good reasons to leave Egypt.My aunt, uncles and cousins sat idly year after year as Egyptian leaders were confirmed by popular referenda. Corruption flourished, and people votes and voices mattered less and less.thought my daughters would never genuinely vote in their lifetime either, she says.My cousins Reham and Mai are both around my age. They grew up in an Egypt gripped by the sense of bleakness and lack of opportunity that had driven my parents to emigrate.Their vote on Wednesday was meant to reverse those stagnant decades. More precisely, their vote was simply about believing they could reverse those times.These presidential elections Egypt first free and fair vote were a step along a painstaking process that began nearly 16 months ago with a public uprising that swept Mubarak from power.For many who live in active democracies, the idea of casting a ballot can be taken for granted: Voting, whether it’s for local councils or presidents, is a routine, often fleeting moment squeezed into the day before rushing off to work Air Jordan 2011 or perhaps during a lunch break.But this historic moment is not lost on people in budding democracies, like Egypt My family voted knowing that others had died to make it possible.Aside from the politics of the vote who they would vote for, why they chose their candidate, what did they want their candidate to achieve on Air Jordan DMP their behalf there was an underlying belief among my aunt and cousins that this time they had a role, this time their voice mattered, this time the candidates have to work to earn their trust.My family lived one of the paradoxes of Egypt revolution. On Nike LeBron 12 Jan. 25, 2011, when the movement began, they sat in the comfort of their home, anxiously watching what was unfolding just a few miles away.They didn participate in the revolution and never went to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests. The weight of apathy from years of being marginalized as citizens was too much to overcome.