This past Tuesday, I performed my civic duty and headed to the polls along with the rest of the country to elect politicians who I felt best represented me, my beliefs, and my morals.

I'm not going to get into the specifics of who I voted for or what political party I belong to. That's not important. At least right now. What is important is that I voted. The fact that I exercised my right as an American to have a say in our democracy is what is important. For so long, young Americans have not taken advantage of this right, allowing their generation to remain without a voice in elections.

Ever since the youth of America were given the right to vote in 1972, they have been underrepresented at the polls. In 1976, one of the very first elections that youth were eligible to vote in, 18-24-year-olds made up 18% of eligible voters in the United States. However, only 13% of that eligible voters in that age group showed up to vote.

Where was that 5%?

Our grandparents, our parents, our aunts, our uncles, etc. fought for the right for our age group to vote. I remember sitting in my college meeting the very first weekend that I was at college. Our college dean made time in her introductory speech to urge the incoming freshman to vote. She spoke of her time as an undergraduate in college, speaking of her experience fighting along with her classmates for the right to vote. Their friends were being shipped off to fight in the Vietnam War and were dying for their country, yet they were not allowed the right to vote.

That is why I headed to the polls this week—to honor the generations that have come before me. The right to vote is something that is so sacred, so special in our democracy. Think of the minority groups throughout the history of the United States that have fought for the right to vote: African Americans, women, and the youth.

The best way to honor that fight, I think, is to vote.

My generation has had to grow up much faster than generations before us. We have lived through traumatizing experiences that generations before us never had to experience as children and young adults.

We live in a world where mass shootings have become a normal occurrence.

We have been born into a world post 9/11.

I remember coming home from school. I was in the first grade. My mom was crouched by the TV with the phone in her hands. One of her clients had a child attending Virginia Tech. She was waiting for confirmation that her client's child was indeed safe. I was 7.

I can tell you where I was when I learned about the Aurora movie theater shooting. I was staying with my aunt. I came downstairs for breakfast in the morning, and she was by the TV, engrossed in the news coverage. I couldn't go to the movies for weeks following. I was completely terrified. I was 12.

I remember where I was when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. I had just gotten home from school and was in the seventh grade. I was sitting at the computer when my mom entered the house with tears in her eyes. She told me what had happened; I will never forget that moment. I was 12.

The Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting. The devastation for the LGBT community impacted so many lives like a ripple in a wave. I remember watching the Tony Awards that evening and seeing James Corden offer a moment of silence for the victims. Then the cast of "Hamilton" opted to not use prop rifles in their performance that evening. I was 16.

And yes, the Parkland shooting. I remember exactly where I was when I found about what had occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. I had just gotten home from a date and everything seemed right in the world. Then I saw a notification on Twitter and discovered that a mass shooting had occurred at a high school. The students who spoke on TV in the days following the shooting looked and felt exactly like me. They were seniors in high school, struggling to retain a sense of normalcy. But nothing was normal. Their lives and worlds were completely shattered and changed forever. That could have been me. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School could have been Cumberland Valley High School. I was 18.

And then the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting two weeks ago. The sheer hatred and anti-Semitism exhibited by this evil individual is horrendous. I have spent the past month working on a show set in the 1960s; in the show, there is a Jewish family living in the south. All of the family members except for the 8-year old son has lived through the Holocaust. After doing extensive research about the time period, I had really hoped that this period of hate had ended. I was wrong.

These experiences are why I voted this past Tuesday. To honor the generations that have come before me and to represent the generation that I am a part of.

Our generation needs to have a voice in this country. If we want change, we have to vote for it. We have to demand it.

That is why I voted.