At first glance looking at my home, some might notice the garden that is blooming with flowers or the fields that surround the house with our horses grazing in them. For me, it's the flagpole with the large "Make America Great Again Trump 2020" flag that hangs. This simple piece of cloth sticks out like a sore thumb to me, and it's not because I'm a Democrat, but because of the rift it put between me and the rest of the family.
Growing up, I didn't watch the news often and only learned about what was happening in politics because my parents would talk about it during dinner. Like most people do, they would make their own comments and insert their own opinions about the current president, or whatever was happening in politics. Because I was only young and never did my own research, I would always agree with them, or understand where they were coming from. And then I took AP government during my junior year of high school. My teacher was one of the best ones I ever had because he was passionate about his job and he also made sure he was always unbiased.
At the beginning of class, I took an online class that asked me about certain beliefs to see which party I sided with more, and the results were Democrat. At first, I was confused and a little bit embarrassed because I didn't want that to be my results, and I realize now that I felt that way because I wouldn't have wanted my parents to know. But then as the class went on, I learned about both of the major political parties — Democrat and Republican — and I really started to understand what both parties are about and I realized that my test results were correct.
That same year, I had to register to vote. Now at this time, we weren't really having family dinners anymore because my siblings and I all had after school activities that would keep us out late, so I wasn't hearing my parent's opinions about politics as much. I also had more access to news, social media, and the internet, so I was reading and researching what I wanted to.
So when the day came to register to vote, I put down Democrat. I want to make it clear that I am not a hard-core Democrat. I side with the right sometimes, but since my opinions match more with the Democratic party, I registered as one. I came home from the DMV and told my parents that I registered and they were annoyed with me. They didn't understand why I registered as a Democrat and I explained to them that I just sided with them more. They said they understood that I have my own opinions, but for a couple years, I couldn't have a reasonable conversation about politics with my family because someone ended up annoyed or angry.
Now politics is not a subject anyone brings up.
My family and I have grown from the years when we would get into arguments about politics since we realized that we just have to respect that we both have our different opinions. Now we don't let our own political difference divide us or make us think one way about each other.
