Bernie Sanders is the perfect Cinderella story of someone no one thought would be a contender shows up and is making a change. Sanders started the race in the lowest of numbers, being ultimately beat by anyone because of his “radical” ideas and plainly of the fact that no one knew who Bernie Sanders was and what kinds of things he stand for. In time Bernie has made a rise in popularity, and now it seems everyone wants to ‘feel the Bern’. He went from being decimated in polls to being within single digits from the current front-runner: Hillary Clinton. But his campaign is facing huge issues: he isn’t getting nearly the amount of delegates he needs to win the nomination. After 8 state wins he is surely catching up, but with Hillary’s corporate money and superdelegate backings, it seems like Clinton is doing a victory lap at this point. But I don’t think anyone will stop ‘feeling the Bern’.

Now when I say this, I am not considering him winning, or losing, because it does not matter in what I’m about to say. This is the first election that I have felt strongly connected to. I supported Bernie in any way I could: from money donations to using my own time to spread the word about his campaign. I’m definitely not an isolated case either. Bernie is reaching the young demographic and teaching them how to care about what goes on around them. People born in the year 1998 will turn 18, and will be given their right to vote this year, meanwhile the twenty-somethings already had the right and have used that right in the past: yet Bernie is connecting with that gap. He is showing the twenty-somethings the impact of who they vote for, while showing the new voters how passionate politics can get. This sparks a new generation of people who are active in campaigns and in elections. Even those against Bernie have been feeling this, getting passionate about the oppositions in Bernie’s sudden burst in popularity. This may seem like a stretch, but if you go around people you know and ask about Bernie, they will all have some kind of opinion. Which is a great thing in contrast to the past where young people really had no say and were silent, or even when voter turnouts weren’t in the best spots in the early-mid 2000s and entertainers started entire campaigns around getting people to vote. Young people are finally seeing their potential and rise to show what their voice is.

So in my perfect word Bernie Sanders wins the nomination in a from behind victory and runs eight years as president, successfully getting a re-election, but the world isn’t perfect and things happen. So maybe this is Hillary’s actual victory route and we are just going to witness another President Clinton. But that doesn’t matter in all reality because Bernie Sanders did what Hillary did not: make politics a passion for the masses. With the backing of this election I cannot foresee another election of a silent generation, because we all realize our spot and our influence.