It is always an interesting question to ask why someone picked his or her college major. For some it’s because one class or professor piqued their interest and they wanted to learn more, for other it’s because they think it will lead to a lucrative career. Then there are those who make their choice because a particular major embodies a core part of themselves.

I myself belong to this final category in my study of politics.

I could not with certainty say exactly what drew me to politics. Personally, I believe it’s a combination of my deep fascination with history combined with the work my parents did to give me a functioning moral compass. Binding both of these forces together is the quest for an answer to that simple yet sophisticated question “why?” In trying to find answers to the many whys of the world, I drew upon those two pillars of my life and politics is where they directed me. From middle school up into high school my interest only grew and my appetite for knowledge expanded until it crystalized into the conviction that this is what I wanted to devote my life to.

However, it is not just the desire for knowledge that drives my interest in politics. Much of my inspiration comes from the desire to do good, to use my talents and abilities to try and make the world a better place in some way. There is also the fact that I recognize that I enjoy a very privileged life, much of which I have only due to chance. I feel that it is my duty as a citizen to use the advantages afforded by my good fortune to ensure others have the opportunity to thrive.

There is however a dark side to studying politics. Politics like any good part of the humanities deals with the explicitly human parts of the world, peeling back the layers of the mind and peering into the deepest recesses of the soul. By its very nature as the gateway to power, politics attracts much of the best of humankind and much of the worst. Digging into the annals of political history an ever more horrific collection of individuals, decisions, and events emerges. Some days it seems that for every inspiring or heroic story you read, you find another ten utterly depressing ones. To make matters worse comparing your knowledge of politics past and present to the general political apathy and ignorance of contemporary society, voting society no less, it paints a bleak picture of the world and its chances. It would be all too easy to fall into cynicism and despair, to write of the world as doomed and focus on your own selfish interests as it all falls apart or deny it and retreat into blissful ignorance.

But cynicism and despair is not a route that leads anywhere productive. Indeed, the idea that we are doomed and things will never get better is one of the oldest claims in politics and the one most often proved wrong. Certainly there are days when contemporary events or new discoveries lead to some gloomy places and dark thoughts, but they will pass. Politics is not the story of the road to our demise or the final verdict on our character. It is the record of our failures and our triumphs, of our vices and our virtues. Like all forms of knowledge, politics is a tool and its power for good or ill rest with the people who use it. I have chosen to try and use that power to better the world and to commit myself wholeheartedly to that end.