In just over a year, the United States will have a new President to lead our country. In my opinion, this is a pretty big deal. We, as the people representing the U.S, have the opportunity to elect someone we feel is a good fit for the future of our country. The upcoming election has been on every news outlet, all of social media, and widely discussed amongst everyone. The concept that some people just don’t care about the election or don’t want to educate themselves about politics doesn’t make sense to me.

As a freshman in college, I see now more than ever the differences in opinions that people have towards politics. I love hearing different opinions and discussing policies among my peers, but there are still a substantial amount of people I have talked to that know nothing about the election. The opinion of whether the next president should be Clinton, Trump, Carson, Sanders, Bush, or whoever doesn’t matter. What matters is forming your own opinion. We are college students with the opportunity to vote, and for many of us, this is our first time voting in a presidential election. Understanding the policies each candidate has and finding a candidate that best suits your opinions and beliefs is so important.

Politics will always be a hot topic between people, but that shouldn’t be an excuse to not be educated about politics. Republican vs. Democrat, Bernie vs. Hillary, Trump vs. basically everyone, there is always going to be debates over who is the better candidate and who has the most experience. Having these debates is what makes our society so interesting.

I’m not saying that every person needs to know all that is happening in politics. I’m saying that knowing the policies that are important to you help shape the society that we live in today. So everyone, turn on the news and get to learning about the 2016 Presidential election.