My fellow college students,

I have shocking news for all of us. It will come as a surprise to many of you, and I'm by no means the first person among us to understand this new information. We have duped ourselves for years, and given the situation in college campuses across the country, with riots and free speech shutdowns, I feel it's necessary to continue this message.

We don't know everything.

As someone who thirsts for knowledge, it was exceptionally difficult to type that. But it's true. This is not to say that there is anyone on planet Earth who does know everything, or anywhere close.

However, many of us seem to be under the impression that our eyes have been opened to the oppressive structure and culture in which we live, and we see far more than the rest of everyone else. They are "woke" to the 'white patriarchy', implying the rest of us are either ignorant or unwilling to fight those spectral oppressors.

While I disagree with that interpretation of modern society, that's not my point. My point is to see beyond the ideologies we've been fed. I was raised in a conservative home; I'm now more centrist. I personally know people who can say the same of their liberal homes. At least for myself, I changed because I was willing to listen to people who disagreed with me on certain issues.

I'm constantly trying to stay more informed, listen to different voices, and read more now, far more than I was a year ago, because I'm no longer bound to my ideology. I no longer feel a need to believe in anything simply because of that group's value structure.

In a very real way, it's freeing to acknowledge ignorance- as I've said before. On many issues, I do not feel informed enough to form a political opinion, and that's alright with me. This is not to wallow in ignorance, but to recognize my own shortcomings in certain areas. I am only 18. My areas of any degree of expertise are extremely few.

This is not to preach my own great revelation, but to show all of you, my fellow college students and young adults, the third door. If you are a conservative reading this, you have no obligation to oppose abortion, gay marriage, and gun laws until your dying day. If you are a liberal (leftist might be a more accurate term), you have no obligation to oppose guns and pro-lifers and traditional marriage believers until your dying day.

The idea that you are somehow betraying your group identity by giving the opposition a voice is a lie.

You have the power to change and in doing so, admit ignorance.

We are only young still. There is only so much we can comprehend about the world for the time being. Maybe right now we don't need to be warriors for causes we don't understand, but instead, be students.

That means making a choice to learn rather than fight.