When I was younger, my mother would always take me to go vote with her. I would feel so grown up when she let me enter the booth with her and pull the handle. As I got older and learned more about how the government works, I grew less interested in politics. It saddened me to learn about corruption and complete destruction of other nations and families due to the fight for control and power.

Through hidden messages, it was thrown at me that my vote doesn’t count and I didn’t matter. Continuing on with high school, the idea of turning 18 was not as euphoric as television had made it. It wasn’t until I saw a protest about healthcare that I realized how important it was for young people to vote. As I looked at the demographics of people in the protest, 90 percent of the people were over the age of 30, and the other 10 percent were people around my age. I was curious as to why this was.

Regardless of the saying, “Young people are the future,” it is much better to be aware of what is going on around us than to be ignorant. Being up to date with the world, especially politics, allows us the ability to look at leaders’ mistakes, analyze them and vote for someone who is qualified. How can we expect change if all we choose to do is complain? Through my class discussions, I realized that young people can contribute fresh and brilliant ideas. We should be the main people in the voting lines and trying to register to vote. There is already this notion that our generation is ignorant and self-centered, so why promote that image? For just half an hour a day, we can flip through a newspaper or watch CNN to learn about the future of the country that not only we have to live in, but our children will as well. As Edward Everett Hale once said, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something, and I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”