Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy 18th Birthday dear, _______, Happy Birthday to you!
So you just turned 18! How exciting! What are you going to go and do? Go buy a lottery ticket? Thinking of celebrating with a weekend getaway with friends? No problem, you're old enough to book a hotel room! Running low on cash and need more hours at work? You can work full-time now! OH I know it! The BEST most EXCITING thing you can do: jump out of a plane! That's right, you can go skydiving and see our world from above-amazing! That's about it though... right?
When I turned 18 years old, I was well aware that I now reserved the right to vote. I had done my 18 years of adolescence and within a matter of 24 hours became a legal adult with the power to help sway our country's voting polls. I should've felt ready to investigate my candidates. I should've known the definition of a primary election. I should've been shown how to register to vote.
From my own personal experience, the things I was taught in high school just barely began to scratch the surface of our government.
For example, my class had spent about 4 days on how to do taxes. That equates to around 6 hours considering each class was about an hour and a half long. Taxes. Six hours.
Furthermore, i'd study textbook definitions over and over again, but despite my best efforts, I never knew how to apply this mass memorization of words to real life. It wasn't until taking a political science course in my first semester of college that I realized I knew absolutely nothing about, well anything. I was t.e.r.r.i.f.i.e.d. I found myself sitting in class listening to the seasoned students of political science talk about republican interests v. democratic interests and I said to myself, "...what am I?". If you could see my notes, I probably tripled what everyone else jotted down out of pure fear that I wouldn't understand a single thing on the exam. Within that composition book full of foreign terms, I fell in love with learning about the politics I had never known.
Political Science is now my major, and while I am a newbie to it all, I will continue to enjoy learning and discovering more about it for the rest of my life. Politics are unavoidable. Even if you don't find yourself actively participating in elections and discussion, you will be affected by its presence in some way or form.
My hope is that young people, like myself, will begin to become less afraid of learning about this intimidating world of politics where everyone around you seems to be years beyond your knowledge. I wish for a world where my fellow millennials become more intrigued to discover aspects to government in more detail, so that they can better contribute to our society where voices matter more than they seem.
If this is you, and you want to do more to educate yourself, here are some steps to guide you through, how to vote.
1. Register to vote. Sometimes you may find a stand on your college campus or a booth in front of a retail store where people will help you register by filling out paperwork. Honestly, registering to vote is just a few clicks away. NextGenCalifornia.com is an easy site to register through and only takes a couple of minutes, https://nextgencalifornia.org/vote/ (NextGenCA). Regardless of how you choose to register, it is important that you do.
2. Go Local: Look into local candidates for city councils, it won't be that hard for you to find their information considering most cities have banners plastered everywhere and we've been utilizing Google for the nearly the past 20 years.
3. Register with a Mail In Ballot: Registering with a mail in ballot helps you to study your candidates and the parties they're affiliated with. You're given a brief, but insightful glimpse into what they do outside of their candidacy, career-wise.
4. Keep Updated: While sometimes the news can be an overwhelming load of information, do your best to stay updated on the happenings of our world today. Voting is not limited to domestic issues, keep your eyes open, and see what your candidates are saying about our world's issues outside of our own backyards. With that said, please be careful to not use Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. as credible news sources. Social forums are places of opinion and while they occasionally share news sourced articles from sites such as CNN, NY Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, etc. it'd be best to steer clear of social media when fact checking anything you are investigating.
5. Know Your Polling Location: Usually you can simply type in "Polling Places Near Me" into your browser, then you'll be prompted to enter a street address and 1, 2, 3, you've got your location!
6. Show Up: November 8th, 2016 is our Presidential Election Day. Make sure you're going into it with a clear mind as to who you're betting your future on. Show up and show out. Young voters have the power to surge voting results into new records, but this is only possible if we all begin to understand just how important our votes truly are. You matter, and we want to hear you. Ergo, VOTE!
So, happy birthday 18 year old you. Don't be afraid to discover who you are and what you want from your government; once you find what you want, go out and get it.
