This isn't clickbait. In fact, this sad truth won't surprise you. Here it is.

We get to know our leaders through flashy, theatrical, polarized, darned expensive presidential campaigns that occupy over a year of time before Election Day. Wait a second, let me amend that. We don't get to know our leaders that way... we just get to know the president.

When the dust settles after the presidential race, we may have gone two years and only voted in one election. But because of the money spent by these candidates, reflected in the content that the media puts forth... we feel like we voted in the election that mattered. We definitely voted for the character that we liked the best after many, many moments catching their impassioned speeches on television, or reading articles online derailing their opponent's morals and policies. We spent perhaps half of our college career getting to know Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump... even Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, whatever. There will only be one elected president of the United States.

Yes, we feel politically satisfied knowing two years' worth of soundbites concerning just one elected official. Why? Because we assume that the presidency is way more important than any other government role! Why? Because presidential campaigns take up way too much of our attention.

I've heard former Bernie supporters trash the Vermont Senator for supporting Hillary. They think that he is done. They might have gotten his email titled, "Next steps for Our Revolution," but their attention span has been used up. If Bernie Sanders isn't the president, he can't do anything, right?

Wrong.

We need to rework our attention spans. Every kid in middle school knows that the United States government is made up of three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. The president leads the executive branch and has power to appoint Supreme Court Justices in the judicial branch. He or she has the power to veto a bill from the legislative branch, but his or her veto isn't even the last word. You can see, even from a middle school perspective, that the presidency does not comprise our entire government.

We have a system that gets corrupt without enough citizen participation. So even though you might not be cognizant of it, you owe your country something. And that something is participation. Not just during presidential campaign season.

Please learn the roles of other government officials -- local and national, legislative and judicial. Educate yourself on the candidates, not just the presidential ones, and not just this year. Vote for good decision makers, even if that interferes with the party lines you might have drawn for yourself. The news channels will remind you incessantly about the presidential election. That's not enough. You have the power to go above and beyond.