Back when you were a child and going to school, politics and the government seemed like something that was not your problem. Save the few kids that did debate and would study our governmental systems like a religion, a majority of middle schoolers and high schoolers just didn’t care enough to pay attention to politics.

Sure, they’d watch the presidential election and preference on candidate or another, probably based on which candidate was preferred in the family. Come college, it’s time for you to step up, and form your own opinions and educate yourself on the topic of politics.

1. If you’re a girl, it will always attest to your intelligence for some reason.

It always seems to come as a shock when a girl is well-versed in the political world, knowing even a few small facts can blow the minds of the people around you. It doesn’t even have to be a unique or little-known fact, just knowing who was running for each political party in the last election was a feat in itself due to the number of Republican candidates especially.

2. Everything political impacts you, even if it feels like it may not.

So maybe a law directed toward females or minorities doesn’t affect you, but it will affect mothers, sisters, girlfriends, wives, and more than likely quite a few friends. The indirect impact will always be there and if a law were to pass that personally affects someone close to you, it would still hold some power over part of your life as well. It would change how the country is run and in which way the political parties believe, which in turn would change your day-to-day life and the activities you usually take part in.

3. If you don’t vote, your voice isn’t heard.

Less than half of the country votes for candidates in average elections. The highest statistic comes when voting for president where the average is 50-60% of those eligible to vote actually do. Yet still, everyone seems to complain when the results of an election come out. A majority of the people complaining about our current president also didn’t like Clinton enough to vote for her and chose not to use their power to prevent him. It’s hard to listen to someone when in such a close race, they didn’t even take the time to choose which of the two they would prefer to call president.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand not wanting to vote for either in the previous election, but when one wins you can’t spend your time complaining about their actions. If you’d have preferred the lesser of two evils to be the other person, why didn’t you use your right to vote?

4. You’re a young adult, a majority of college kids cannot drink alcohol legally, but you can have a say in your government.

Take opportunities as they come, plenty of college kids will go out and break the law by drinking underage. Why not just vote or try to change the law itself though, rather than risking your own status in doing so?

5. It’s a form of expression.

You can’t easily walk around a college campus without someone expressing their views on one thing or another, voting and getting involved in politics is a way to do that without causing a scene. A majority of people expressing their views have read up on politics, but only the pieces that matter the most to them, to delve deeper would allow you to open your mind and let you think for yourself. The time has come to grow up and form your own opinion because you can’t just vote for the same person as your parents every year.