When the 2016 election began, I found myself very interested in politics and how politics work because it was my first opportunity to pick a candidate and vote for them. As I submersed myself into the craziness and confusion of how politics and elections work, I found myself leaning toward casting my vote for Bernie Sanders. I was won over by the uniqueness of his campaign and the fact that he wasn’t considered the “norm” that most presidential candidates considered themselves.

We all know how Bernie Sanders campaign turned out; and as must as I was disappointed, the thought never crossed my mind that just because Bernie would not be the democratic presidential nominee that I wouldn’t be voting in the November election. I was surprised, however, at all the Sanders supporters that were so adamant about not voting for the democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, or even worse; people saying that they were going to vote for Donald Trump instead.

We are at a point in this historically strange presidential campaign where the quote “you have to work with what you got” is extremely important and prominent. I’m not saying that I agree with every single thing that Hillary Clinton as done or said, but I’m not willing to take the chance of Donald Trump becoming president instead. An election is not a joke and is something that should be taken extremely seriously by the American people. I’ve heard people say “well it’s only four-years, how much can Trump mess up?” Excuse me, what? Four-years = 1460 days, a lot of those which the president has to make important and serious decisions. So to say that four-years is a short amount of time to mess the country up shows your naiveté when it comes to picking a president in this campaign.

And to the Sanders supporters who refuse to vote for Hillary -- think about the competition and who she is up against, who would you honestly, truthfully trust more to run a country that consists of 318 million people. A lot of people are under the impression that their individual votes don’t necessarily matter in an election, but does anyone realize that the more people who believe that same notion are actually causing a huge effect in the election. Your vote does matter, and you are going to miss an opportunity to change how America is run if you don’t make the decision to use the right you have as an American citizen.

So Bernie supporters who have decided not to vote in this year’s election, please reconsidered your decision and considered all of the pros and cons of what will be happen if you do not vote. It is time to take this election as seriously as it should have been all along; the cycle of hatred and racism done by the republican nominee needs to be broken, and we have the power to break this cycle but we have to be willing to do so in the first place.