This last year has taught me a lot about a subject I thought I understood pretty well. Politics.

As a child, it's easy to simply not care about politics and the mundane, suit-wearing people who spend their lives reporting it and creating it. It seems stupid. It seems uneducated. It seems to be the exact opposite of what your parents tell you to be. It's fraught with lies, backstabbing, anger, deceit, cons and countless other bad words that shouldn't be applied to the "industry" that keeps our flag flying high.

As a teenager, it's easy to get caught up in the big stories. For me, it was police brutality, mass shootings, race riots and gender inequality. Nothing good. What's worse is that none of the stories were made up. They all happened. They all happened within my lifetime. Worse yet, within a few months of each other.

Of course, I fell on the side of the argument that every other female teenager from a middle-class neighborhood would fall on. Police brutality exists, but there's more to the story than what they will report. Mass shootings are wrong and we need more gun control. Race riots should have ended in the 1960's and 1970's. Gender equality should not even be an argument, it should just happen.

Before you jump to conclusions, I wasn't uneducated. I was just naive. Like many others my age.

We didn't have many other options than to be naive. We grew up with some highly controversial presidents. President Clinton was a far cry from an angel, but he had some good policies. President Bush was...a thing that happened, but he did what he thought was best for the world. President Obama took care of some things that needed to be done, but he also overlooked a lot of other things that also needed to be taken care of.

Each one of these men was disputed at some point or another for being too left or too right. It was always because of the same handful of big news political issues. What are we going to do about the Middle East? What's the deal with abortion? How did they feel about Planned Parenthood? Do women deserve what men have? Are all races equal?

Some of these questions, at least to me, seem pretty pointless to ask, and the answer should be blatantly obvious. But that's just it. They weren't the problems that were really important. They were just the ones that were easy to report and got people riled up.

We weren't talking about mental health epidemics and the fact that upcoming generations have more mental health issues than previous generations. We weren't addressing what needed to be done so that people of all races felt that they were safe in the country they called home. We were busy addressing the cover letter of gun control, but we weren't talking about what would happen if we did or didn't enact new safety regulations. What about the unemployment rate and that it drops when people stop looking for jobs and just become complacent with having no job. Health insurance distracted people from issues of school lunch prices and the fact that our children were eating unhealthy amounts of fried food from cafeterias and paying extra for a bottle of water instead of juice.

I didn't realize that until I got to college and I was all but forced to read the paper and watch the news on a regular basis. Not local news, but national and international news. I had to become aware of what was happening across the street from me and across the world from me because it all impacted me.

Before I had to do this, I had never considered what political party I would belong to or register as when the time came. Then suddenly I was 18 and I had to register because I wanted to vote for the next president. I registered and immediately questioned my choice.

What was the difference between a democrat and a republican? A democrat is more open-minded and a republican doesn't have the time of day for anyone who disagrees with them? That's certainly how the media made it seem.

I like to consider myself open-minded, so I determined that I was a democrat.

I think everyone should have the right to be married. I think all people are equal regardless of skin tone, religious choices or gender. I believe that everyone deserves an education and the right to a job and equal pay at that job. I think guns shouldn't be something that just everyone can pick up. I believe a woman is the only one who has the right to determine what happens to her body.

Essentially, I believe that everyone has the right to live their life as they please. After all, that is why America is known as the land of the free.

It wasn't until after the election was finished and everyone was hemming and hawing about the results that I realized how hypocritical liberals are.

For example, Democrats claim to want education and employment for all, but when someone is qualified for a job they may be turned down because Equal Opportunity quotas haven't been met. They claim that everyone is equal, but they are the first to point fingers at the opposing team.

It wasn't just that the party seemed hypocritical to me, but it was also that I realized I believed in a lot of things that conflicted with Democrat beliefs. For starters, I didn't think all cops were bad guys. Sure there are few bad seeds here and there, just like there is with any other industry. But I also knew that I grew up in a town where the cops bought us coffee and candy at Wawa and handed out baseball cards after school. Not so horrible in my eyes. I felt horrible when anyone, cop or civilian, was wrongfully shot. A human being lost their life. You should feel bad.

But what about the military? My grandfather and my poppop were both in the service. My cousin and my uncle were in the service. Two of my closest friends are in the service. Was I just supposed to believe that they had too much money? No. I wanted to know that they were safe, well cared for and had the equipment they needed to come home each and every day. I didn't want the country to go broke, but I knew that America needs the military it has.

And health insurance? It sounds great to say that everyone should have access to it, and I agree they should. But mandating coverage or else citizens are fined for not having coverage? That didn't sound very equal and open-minded. To me, it sounded like a forced policy that hurt those who were already being hurt by tricky welfare systems and persnickety programs that rarely offered acceptance.

We want everyone to say and do as they please because we allegedly believe that it's their right to do just that. But when someone decides that they don't agree with one aspect of our beliefs, say a republican, we suddenly decided that they are the enemy. That they are wrong for having their own point of view. But doesn't that contradict exactly what we claim to stand for?

It does in my eyes.

As a woman I want men to feel that they are equal to women just as I want women to feel they are equal to men. If a woman commits a crime her punishment should be equal to that of a man. If a man is single and has a child he is just as entitled to time off to take care of that child as a woman should be. If a woman has a baby, both the mother and the father should get equal amounts of time off to take care of their child.

As a student I want everyone to feel that they are entitled to a college education. Not because of their gender, race or economic background, but because they want it and they earned it. That means students who don't have the grades shouldn't get into great schools just because their parents have money just as much as it means a student with a poor attendance record and a behaviorial record shouldn't get in. But it also means that the public education system needs to be improved everywhere . Not just in "bad" neighborhoods and not just in sports programs. But in all neighborhoods and all programs. We aren't all cookie-cutter students who love math and football. We like arts and English too.

As an American I want all people to feel welcome. I want them to know that they won't be exiled because they don't agree with everything that happens in our country. But I want to know that they will respect my country as I would respect their country. I want visitors and citizens alike to understand that America was built on new and unique viewpoints as well as classic and traditional views. But both views were heard and respected.

If you believe that certain people should not be married. Okay. Fine. That is your belief. But that does not give you the right to harm people who disagree with you. It does not give you the right to deny those people their right to marriage. Consequently, if you believe that gun control is the only way to make America safer that is totally okay. But it's also okay to feel the other way. It's even better if you can take the time to talk to each other about how you see your argument. Not fight. Not degrade. But talk and debate civilly. Understand why one side feels the way they do and help them understand why you feel the way you do.

Until this year, I thought I understood politics. I thought it was black and white. You either agreed with one side or you agreed with the other. You were liberal. You were conservative. That was it.

But that isn't it.

Our founding fathers knew that, and we seem to be forgetting that. Our Constitution says, "We the People of the United States..." It does not say "We the Republicans versus We the Democrats." We are all one. We all want safety, peace, happiness, family and love. We want unity. The same unity in our country's name.

Until this year I didn't understand the importance in the United States. Now I do. I am not liberal. I am not conservative.

I am American.