As the GOP debate aired in high schoolers’ living rooms and college kids’ dorm rooms, parents heckled and kids snickered. The average young American foams at the mouth for opportunities like this—a large audience and a primetime televised event perfectly align, and voila! The internet experiences a frenzy of Facebook posts, tweets, and yaks.

Despite the type of media attention these candidates, debates and elections receive, the number of teens and young adults that are actually watching, reading, and paying attention to the situation at hand is far too low. Instead of using the Presidential Election as a platform for humorous social media posts, we need to go back to elementary school and pick up our thinking caps. We need to educate ourselves. And if we are of age, we need to register to vote. Then actually vote. Why, though?

It’s part of what makes The United States of America a special place.

The U.S. of A. The Red, White, and Blue. The Land of the Free Because of the Brave. Regardless of the loads of criticism thrown at our military, economy, or general well-being of the Stars and Stripes, we were still born in the greatest country of the world: choc-full of the greatest opportunities and the greatest potential. As Americans, we are granted countless freedoms that aren’t available in many other places on the globe. We have the right of speech, religion, press, petition, and assembly. We have the right for a jury trial. We have the right to vote. Yes, we have the right to choose who will make executive orders for the fifty states. “We” and “freedom” aren’t phrases thrown around too often in some other nations. Don’t ever take that for granted.

It forces you to become educated about our country and the rest of the world.

Before checking a name or party off on the ballots, we should become aware of the candidates’ backgrounds and stances, current issues, and consequences of taking certain actions. I would assume as mature 18-year-olds, we would not vote blindly. The promise we make to ourselves to make an educated vote forces us to learn more about the world and delve into topics we possibly haven’t even surfaced before.

We learn about how the government and economy work, American relationships with the rest of the world, social issues, and technological advances. Not only does this knowledge pertain to elections, but to our jobs and everyday lives as well. Expanding our minds is crucial.

To state it simply: it’s our future.

Kanye West was right: We the millennials.

We are the future of this nation. In fact, we are the future of this world. In the past, we have played the role of guinea pigs. We have experienced a great deal of changes, most notably in the education system. Soon enough, though, we will be pioneers. Soon enough, we will have families and fill the workforce to capacity. The future resides in your dorms, classrooms, and communities. We are capable of propelling our nation and planet in the right direction. Our generation will be held responsible for repairing the damage left from previous years. Our generation will be the one negotiating with foreign nations in a much more globalized world. Starting now, everything that happens will actually have an impact on us. We will no longer have the excuse of being the next ones in line and hiding behind our parents.

There you have it, folks. As you embark on adulthood, keep this in mind. Become educated in the world of politics, become aware, and vote. If you don’t vote…well, don’t complain. Surrendering the right to vote means relinquishing the right to complain about the transformations, or lack thereof, that occur in this remarkable country. Care enough to participate in the process, because you’ll be glad you did.

The success of a nation does not originate from the top to trickle down. Success lingers in a nation’s roots. Success is in each and every one of us. If we take initiative, together we will, as my fellow Villanovans always say, ignite change.

And as I read on Twitter once, “Didn’t win the lottery, but I woke up in the greatest country in the world. And that’s kind of the same thing.”