The recent GOP debate makes the election seem a lot closer than it really is. However, it is time to start preparing. As a generation, I feel that we are one extreme or the other. Either we hate anything to do with politics or we're firmly founded in whatever our parents want us to regurgitate. We are at a point in our lives that I believe we need to find our own identities and educate ourselves about what we truly believe. We watch these debates but do we truly know what the candidates are talking about? This isn’t to say that our generation as a whole is mindless liberal or conservative robots, but there is definitely a good portion of young, 20-somethings that are.

The first thing we should all do this election season is research. Yes, research like you do for school. When you watch these debates, republican or democrat, fact check whatever the candidates say. I also strongly encourage fact checking what the mediators say, just as an additional safety net. One thing you have to realize is that these people are trying to win an election.

For many of you, this is the first time you've ever been eligible to vote during a presidential election, so it can be a whirlwind of information (I know it was for me during my first time). It's easy to just accept whatever is said as fact. While I’m not trying call any of the candidates liars (though some may be) they all have an extraordinary talent for stretching the truth. They all have very prominent public images to bolster and other politicians' images to destroy. On the campaign trails, all politicians have experts of the English language writing for them. It is common practice to see words manipulated to make horrible things sound 'not so bad' and minor accomplishments to sound like earth shattering achievements. Because of this, it can be hard to decipher fact from fiction, hence the pertinence to do some fact searching on your own. Do not become a mindless cipher for liberal or conservative news sources. A good way to go about forming your own opinion is to read multiple sources that back both the donkey and the elephant. Go from there and decide what you believe in. This is the first step in making our generation one of informed and intelligent people and voters.

While educating yourself, there is another thought process that should be taken into consideration. Don’t just think about what the candidates say they'll be doing next year. What are their plans four years from now? In four years, many of us will be doing something totally different than what we're doing now. In one year you could still be in college or starting your first real job. In four years, you could be graduated or moving your way up the corporate ladder. How will their plans for four or more years from now affect you then? You have to plan for the long term just as much, if not more, than you do for the short term. What the candidates initial plans are might sound great to you, but what if the big picture tears apart everything you've worked for? The next person we put into office isn't just there for the first year of great things that you think he or she has promised. He or she has, at the very least, another three years to be in charge of our country. When voting, make sure the last three years of “promises” are as great as the first, otherwise it could be a long four years for you. This is also true for our congressmen and women and our senators. They have just as much power as our commander-in-chief.

I have saved the most important point for last; It's more of a plea than anything else. Please exercise your right as an American citizen and vote. So many people of our generation do not vote and that sickens me. Many people do not vote in elections because they “don’t make a difference” and that is entirely false. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to vote. Not only should you vote in presidential elections, you should vote in the house and the senate elections as well. All of these groups check and regulate each other. Not to mention Congress and the senate more closely represent we the people than Mr. President does, which I think a lot of people fail to recognize. The people's participation in elections hovers around thirty percent and that is an embarrassing number. If we do not exercise the rights we still have, we will continue to lose ones we thought we had. For example, a popular topic is that of outlawing part of our second amendment. The second amendment states that we have the right to bear arms and that this right shall not be infringed upon, yet here we are having this debate. I won't argue on this topic, it’s just an example of the rights that are we dangerously close to losing. That being said, I don’t see how we can be mad about losing our rights if we don’t exercise the greatest one we have: the right to elect our leaders. We the people of the United States of America have the privilege to decide who runs our country. If you don’t like something going on in our country, you have the ability to do something about it by educating yourself and voting for the person who most closely resembles your beliefs. As I said before, please vote.

Election season is closing in on us. This can be an exciting or frightening time. Maybe you're ready for new leadership or sad to see an old regime go. There are many steps we as Americans should take in getting ready for this election, from reading up on our candidates to, more importantly, stepping into the voters booth. I just hope that we as a young generation take these steps to bring this country back to being the bright light of the world I know it can be. Educate yourself on each candidate, think about short and long term goals that you have for our country, and then fill out that ballot.