VOTE

VOTE. Your life is directly affected by voting. I don't believe you should ever impose your opinions on anyone about anything, especially politics. But you should be voting for someone YOU believe best represents the country and will stand up for the things you believe in.

Before this year I have always voted in respect to my dad. But I never realized the true importance of voting till this year. My little sister who is just 16 was talking to me about the potential candidates (last Nov.) and knew way more than I thought I would ever know. She had a stance and a valid one at that [by valid I mean backed up by research on both sides and issues to form her opinion]. She kind of whipped me into shape, she told me it is childish to not keep up with whats going on in the world and have a say. She said she wouldn't be friends with me if I were in her grade and was that ignorant about the world. I MEAN DAMN. Ok, so I spent the next month and a half everyday for at least a couple hours researching. I have so much respect for people like Callen, stating what they believe in and getting others to vote because she can't yet. Although I will never be the type to talk open about my beliefs and opinions, I will try to be. However, it is ALWAYS unessecary to impose your beliefs by fighting or argueing with someone about politics, you should be having open and honest conversations with people about it. I was getting laser done and she straight up asked me who I was voting for, which I would never do but whatever. I told her who I was voting for and she told me I'd be dumb if I voted for them so I asked her why. She was able to openly talk about the canditdate and I just took in what she had to say rather than fight back. Although it didn't change my opinion, I was able to gain more perepctive on the other candidates supporters (which is sometimes hard for me to do). This is key because no matter who wins the election, there will still be presence of supporters of the losing candidate who will still believe in what they stood for. They will still have their opinions after the elecion is over. That is why you should go out of your way to educate yourself evenly on both candidates.

Easy steps to get on top of your vote:

1. Subscribe to both candidates emails and direct both candidates websites (even if you have a clear choice)

To see what they stand for and what their campiagn is like.

2. Podcasts are a really great way to stay on top of the election news. Because the election seems to be always changing, this is a great platform to keep up to date--My favorite has been 'FiveThirtyEight Elections'.

3. DONT JUST READ THE DAMN ARTICLE TITLES

This has been suuuch an issue this election. People are so quick to judge from one tweet and don't actually read. Most titles are dramatized and exaggerated, just reading the title is lazy. READ.

This is the most important thing you have to do and to do it without educating yourself dismisses the point of valid votes.

I believe you should stick up for what you believe in but you should never judge or fight someone elses opinions. Dont pry and try to prove to someone else that their opinion is wrong, they may be voting for a candidate for a reason that could be too personal to talk about. Everyone votes for different reasons and because there are so many reasons to choose a candidate it is not up to you to tell someone which reason is the biggest to make their decision off of. For the most part I believe voters make a decision after researching both candidates positions on a number of different issues and make a choice collectively of all issues at hand deciding which issues are most important to you.

I am voting for the candidate who will fight for the issues I strongly believe in, gun control, climate change, and women rights and choice.

At the end of the day I am voting for the person I believe will best represent this country.

I'm not telling you who to vote for. I am telling you to VOTE.