Sitting in class one day I realized there’s a huge disconnect between most college students and current events. I found a love for news and world issues and have cultivated it ever since, so when most of my classmates had no idea about a piece of legislation that had passed in Mississippi within the past five years I was confused.

Did they not realize that we were able to vote now? These issues and events would be what determined potential voting issues and what fuel political change, yet most of the class had no idea that there had been issues surrounding them all their lives. It made me wonder, how do we live in a world where there’s so much information at our fingertips but we know so little?

I looked around when I got to my next class to see what people used their phones and computers for in-between classes. That’s when I realized that most of the time we use our phones we check social media, but more to see what the people around us are doing. I realized I do the exact same thing most of the time, but my parents and family enjoy discussing politics so I often get to talk about things and look up what interests me. Without that exposure, I wouldn't have any contact with current events and would probably have very little concern with the effects of legislation on my life.

But now college students face a dilemma. We have to start paying attention to what is going on around us. We need to take up causes close to us and work to decide how we feel about the issues generating around us.

We don’t know what things are going on in the government that will affect us in four short years. Even if you just read two news articles a day it’s a start. We have to decide to engage in our world and choose our future. It may not seem like a big issue now, but we are letting other people decide the stipulations we must abide by. There is so much out there for us to look at and challenge to make the country we will lead better but the first step is gaining an understanding of the issues that are defining to us now.

I challenge you to spend ten minutes a day reading about something going on within the country and even the world so that we can be the generation that has a strong effect on making positive changes.