After making an impromptu trip to the grocery store on Wednesday to pick up some much needed essentials (diet Coke, ice cream, and frozen vegetables, obviously), I arrived home to a much awaited surprise: my voter registration card.

As soon as I reached the ripe old age of 17 years and 10 months, as required by Texas, I printed out the voter registration paper and mailed it to the county registrar. My life had been full of anxiously awaiting the day I could make my voice heard in our democracy.

I watch the news anyway, but since last summer, I have been paying extra attention to the presidential candidates. While I identify as a Democrat, I am not one who absolutely HAS to stick with the party, and if I believed that an Independent or Republican candidate would lead the country better than the Democratic opponent, I would cast my vote for one of the former two parties.

In this race, there is absolutely no contest: the Democratic candidate far outweighs the Republican candidate. I am proudly supporting Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump for many reasons, with the foremost being my values as a human being.

I have been shamed and ridiculed for my support of Hillary Clinton. People tell me that I am young and don't know anything about politics; that I am only voting for her because she is a woman; that I will "outgrow" these liberal beliefs and will eventually switch parties.

I believe that same sex marriage is a fundamental human right. I believe that wealthier people should have to pay higher taxes. I believe that a woman should be able to choose. I believe that guns are far too easy to access and that assault weapons are not needed the vast majority of the time. I believe that we need a comprehensive immigration reform that makes it easier for those who are otherwise lawful people to become citizens.

I also believe that a businessman who has proven himself to be racist, Islamaphobic, and misogynistic should not be the leader of our country. A man who has made horrific comments about prisoners of war and wants to build a WALL between the U.S. and Mexico cannot be president. A man with a plethora of his own legal issues that include fraud should not be president.

Hillary Clinton is not perfect. She has controversies and issues that continuously plague her, and if there had been more candidates, she may have not been my first pick. But now, with less than three months until the election, I believe that the conscious choice is clear - and I'm definitely with her.