If you are like me, you probably feel like the 2016 Presidential Election has been going on for the past 10 years and you are not wrong. However, your refusal to vote for the next president, who will be the leader of our country for at least four years, is something that I find troubling. Admittedly, our options may have appeared better in past elections, but as citizens of this country, we would be negligent if we avoided our responsibility to vote our next commander in chief into office. More so, we would be hypocritical to not only refuse to vote, but to then complain when the chosen candidate assumes his role in January 2017.

I am like you -- if I hear about one more Twitter feud between presidential candidates, I will probably blacklist social media in the hopes that it will help me escape from the continued childish nonsense. Between the insults, the crude jokes and the hateful rhetoric, I am frankly alarmed that there are people who continue to tune into the debates. But at the end of the day, regardless of whether we agree with one’s political stance or abhor it, they have one. Moreover, if we abhor it, we cannot simply stand by and shake our heads. If we remain passive, we will not only set a precedent for future generations that it is acceptable to ignore the issues that we see exhibited by specific candidates. We will also be doing a disservice to ourselves by aiding the candidate in not having strong opposition.

If you do not want a specific candidate in office, do something about it. Do not simply complain about it to your friends, or worse yet, take to social media and rip them to shreds. Do not get me wrong, if you are looking to express your views, go right ahead. However, if you tell me that you are not planning on voting because “whoever gets in, it will be bad,” I will not respect that. The somber reality is that there is always a lesser of two evils and sometimes that lesser version needs to be chosen for the sake of the country.

We live in a democratic nation where we have the power to let our voices be heard. Rather than throwing our hands up and bemoaning the current political climate, continue to educate yourself so that come November, you are not sitting in your room waiting to hear the outcome for something that you could have had a say in. Though ultimately, as the election season continues to progress, I am frequently reminded of the words that my grandfather has said on numerous occasions this past year: “Regardless of who is voted in, we will still have to get up and go to work and school the next day.”