As a child in America, I learned that what first made my country great was that the people got to choose their own leader-- we got to vote. As a young girl, I was taught that I should cherish my future vote even more, because so many women committed their lives to securing that right. So here I am, a 20-year-old millennial about to vote in her first Presidential election, yet when I was younger, I never could have imagined the pit sinking in my stomach.

We've been watching this train-wreck election year from its earliest stages. With today's level of media coverage, not much seems to go on "behind the scenes." Every breath the candidates take is recorded, broadcasted, and criticized by not only the entire country, but the entire world.

It's a blur how we got here. At first, I was 90% sure that Trump was running as a joke. I thought it was a publicity stunt that would never really go anywhere. Oops, it did. I thought at this point that Hillary Clinton would be behind bars, and Bernie Sanders would be representing the Democratic party. Oops, I guess criminal allegations shouldn't effect our choice in presidential candidate. And throw two serious third-party candidates into the mix, and congrats America, we have ourselves a sh*t-show.

I'm not sure that I have faith in how our voting works. I was too young to truly understand what happened when Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but George W. Bush won the election. I didn't understand that this event signified that the vote was not completely in the hands of the people. When the electoral college was put in place, many of U.S. voters were uneducated. I'm still not sure if this was just, but that's beside the point.

Today, children in the U.S. are required to go to school until they are 16 years old. Yet the electoral college is still in place, even though all voters have a minimum of 11 years of schooling behind them. Is this still about a lack of trust in our people, or about a lack of trust in our education system? Either way, I believe the use of the electoral college is outdated, unnecessary, and somewhat insulting to average American citizens like myself, and I think it's effects may come in to play during this election.

As I walked into my local courthouse to cast my first ballot, I was still not completely convinced of my choice. Sadly, I did not believe I was voting for a candidate I could stand behind-- rather, I was voting against a candidate I couldn't. I was saddened and frustrated about the fact that I had to attempt to choose the lesser of two evils.

But I did it. I cast my vote. And instead of feelings of responsibility, pride, or importance, I was overcome with humility, doubt, and concern for myself, my family, my friends, and my country. Now, the results of this election are out of my hands. No matter the outcome, may God bless America, because these next four years are sure to be interesting.