How do I start this? I am sitting in a smokey room with a map of the entire world hanging over my head. When I registered to vote, I think the same map was over my head. Thats the idea right? To become educated in college, to make a stand for how we want to shape the world.
When I was a kid, my parents would talk about how when they were my age, they became politically involved through college. Essentially they based their decisions on if they wanted the world to sustain conservative views or how supportive they were of modern views. They would look at me and say, "We support you no matter what pathway you choose when you come to this point. We support you as long as you are kind, brave and true." The last condition was that no matter what, I understood people who believed in something different. After all we are all little dots on this map that we share. My map is your map.
So, 2017 rolls around and it is NOT the same map my parents grew up in. My political views aren't about if I think the nipple should be freed or if Catholic churches should still receive tax breaks. I am growing up in a time period that will have some cliche name in history textbooks for centuries to come.
When I began to write this article I wished that I could just stand here and fully support one candidate. Now before you jump the gun, this does not mean that I am blind to any of the major wrong doings of either candidate. It means that I am CONFUSED.
I don't identify with a side because I identify major flaws in both before I can even think of anything else. I am speaking to the millennial who convinced themselves that they are dumb because they can't have a full hearted argument about ANYTHING political now a days. I am speaking to the millennial who let their parents down, and maybe the whole country because we could not check a box at voting booth. I am speaking to the millennial who proudly proclaims that they have NO interest in politics because they are too scared to admit that between social media, parents, college and some unnamed inner struggle to do what is right... We do care. We care and we sigh to ourselves upon rejecting politics because we told ourselves that one day WE would be the movement. We spend hours pouring over information that sways us back and forth until we are nauseous and begging to get off the ride.
I am writing this to the people who have avoided months of Facebook fights and who have violently changed the subject after every holiday dinner. IT IS OK. It is NOT OK to stop seeking knowledge. It is ok to admit that this is bigger than your little dot on the map. Politics isn't all that it is cracked out to be. If everyone let their entire lives stop for this campaign we would have such a halt in so many other beauties of our nation. Instead I implore you to let the campaign inspire you. If you can not come to a decision that is ok. I implore you to let it release something within you though. If you can't take away some sort of political sense from all of this then share with the world your confusion. Paint your struggles, write your passions, question literally everything. You did not fail your parents. You did not fail your country. You did not fail yourself. Side note, this article means that your not even close to being alone in how you feel.
So in history textbooks, when they talk about essential periods of time in life, they always include essential art, culture and other "small" pieces of the pie that made that time period just as much as the political conflict of the time. If you can't be the politician on the front page, be the Van Gough on the center spread.
