I was raised in an immediate family where my mother never discussed politics. She never pushed her political affiliation on to me and she always wanted me to think for myself. Now that I am in college and legal to vote, I want to thank my mother for how she handled politics while I grew up.

Now that the elections are merely days away, I learned that I need to think for myself and who I relate to the most in politics. I am not biased towards political parties because growing up, I was never taught to side with one party, or to affiliate myself with a certain party. I was never objectified to the uncanny and negative aspects to the affiliation to becoming a “democrat” or a “republican.”

I am now able to inform myself with no bias towards certain parties. I am not “pro-Clinton” and I am not “pro-Trump.” I am not “republican” and I am not “democrat.” I am a citizen of a country I love. I am a citizen of a country I want to be proud of, where I can proudly state that I live in this country. My political affiliation does not define who I am. I feel like in today’s society, and maybe I am wrong, but I feel like everyone has this need to affiliate with a certain party, a certain person, or a certain view.

There have been times where I start talking with peers and we discuss politics. I find that so many of these individuals have this desire to characterize themselves as a party, it’s who they are. This is perfectly fine, but to me, I would rather characterize myself as an interpersonal characteristic rather than something that can change in time.

I am the millennial the older generation hates. I am the millennial that is not well-educated when it comes to politics. I find myself taking quizzes to find who I side with most. I find myself researching the most important topics- related to me- that the presidential candidates take stances on. I don’t follow up on the debates. I don’t follow them on twitter. I don’t care whether Clinton used a personal email for important documents, and I don’t care if Trump has declared bankruptcy once or twice. I care about the wholesome of our country.

I care about how we will transform as a country as a whole in the future. I care about the future of our children and our children’s children. I care about the problems we are battling today. We need to see the bigger picture. The whole instead of bits-and-pieces.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I should learn more about the election before I make a blog post about the political candidates and how within days, our nation will change drastically; our nation will make history- whether that is good or bad is up to each individual to decide.

But for now, I am going to be “pro-United States.” I am not going to deem myself as republican or democrat. I am not going to promote nor destroy Clinton or Trump and I am not going to shove my political views down your throat on my social media platforms. I want the best for my country. Just remember, my political stance does not define me as a human being. It defines how I want to see our nation prosper for our future.