The looks I used to get when I was younger and told people that I have a love for politics were typically comical. It started out that they would look at me and tell me I was too young to have an opinion. As I entered high school, they told me college would change my mindset. Now, they laugh and me and tell me they're praying for me. Regardless of the comments anyone has had toward my passion, it has never made me waiver. When I was in middle school, I was always running for the captain of some club. When I got to high school, I wanted to be the freshmen class president, then the student government president. Politics was, and is, my passion and I give it credit for making me the person I am today.

My parents are what you would call "right-wing Republicans." Growing up in South Florida I attended Catholic school, was the daughter of a police officer, and stayed in my perspective "bubble." I didn't know any races other than my own, was flabbergasted that there were other religions out there other than Catholicism, and didn't know living below the poverty line was a real problem. This was the way my parents raised me, and if it weren't for moving to Georgia my sophomore year of high school, I would have never opened my eyes to the real world.

The first day of school I met a little, red-headed girl in my class who clearly had never seen a world outside of East Cobb, Georgia. She flaunted her Lilly Pulitzer dress with her Jack Rogers shoes and clearly was proud of it. We sat down for lunch together and I learned that she was interested in politics as well. She asked me my beliefs and when I told her I supported the President in office (Barack Obama) I will never forget the words that came out of her mouth: "but Ally, he's black." I almost spit the coffee out of my mouth because I was so disgusted by what I had just heard.

I'm not putting myself on a pedestal, or saying my mindset is superior to anyone else's, but I thought: "How could this really be the mindset of someone in 2014?" I know everyone says they have a turning point in their life, and truly this was mine. This little red-headed girl showed me everything I did not want to be. For the next hour she grilled me on how Obama wanted to give free money to the poor, fix the wage gap, give women rights to their own bodies, and she heavily disagreed with his foreign policy.

I am by no means lumping every Republican in with this high school girl, but I am saying that she represents a large systematic problem with the Republican party. My little friend never ventured outside of her bubble to experience the real world, and she relied on her mom and her dad for all of her political thoughts. Whatever mom and pop thought was passed down to her and ingrained in her mind. Her parents, like many other Republicans, refuse to move into the 21st century. She then took two seconds from her rant to ask me why I was a Democrat (she assumed this because I simply said I supported Obama) and I didn't have an answer for her then. I looked down at my food and changed the topic; but if I could go back to eating lunch with her now I would know exactly what to say:

I'm a Democrat because I believe in bettering America by bettering every person who lives in America. I believe that regardless if you are black, white, male, female, gay, lesbian, or transgender, if you want to work you will be rewarded. On the other hand, if you cannot work but you're willing to one day work, the government will help you and your children get back on your feet. I believe that women have as many rights as men, and they should be treated equally in every way possible. I believe that a women has the rights to her own body, healthcare, and reproductive rights. I believe that higher education should be affordable and the solution to our problems is not kicking foreigners out of our country. I believe that the wealthy should be just as responsible for their duties as the poor, and that the poor have a chance to one day become the wealthy. I believe no matter who you are, America is YOUR melting pot and no one should take that right away from you.