I was raised in a conservative household. We went to church every week, we paid our taxes, we gave to charity, we played soccer as kids, and we had a dog. I grew up to understand that I had to work hard for my money and I knew that when I bought something with money I earned, it would mean so much more to me than if it was bought for me instead because I would have earned it rather than had it given to me. The word "liberal" was only used to describe either how much peanut butter I wanted on my PB&J or to describe the "undesirable" government in the state of Connecticut. I was raised conservative, but my junior year, I found myself incapable of identifying with that ideology anymore.

My junior year of high school, I took a class called AP US History, or APUSH for short. I was told I didn't want one specific teacher because she was a "raging, feminist neoliberal" that only supported one side of the history of our country and one side of its politics. Well, she was my teacher, and I can't thank her enough for changing my life. Honestly, she was not a "raging" liberal, she was a calm and quiet woman that definitely had her opinions, but she kept them to herself in class. She encouraged students to develop their own political beliefs and to understand why they believed what they did. I had never been challenged about what I believed before, and her class made me really think about what I meant when I spoke about certain policies and how what I said affected other people. I learned to understand and to believe that a woman had the right to choose her own beliefs without listening solely to her parents and relatives. I came to realize that I felt that everyone should be offered the opportunity to live their best life no matter the circumstances of their birth and that the government should not interfere with that, but rather ensure that everyone has that capability. I chose what I wanted to believe and what I wanted our government to turn into; I didn't feel obligated to be conservative just because that's what I grew up thinking and expressing.

I would often come home from a long day of school and crew practice to have dinner with my family. We would discuss what we had learned in class that day, how practice went, what we had planned for the weekend or whatever current events we had seen on the news. Most of the time, the conversation centered around political topics, since everyone at the table could get involved with the discussion. Everyone else in my family was conservative, so I often would feel like I was being ganged up on. My older brother thought that he always knew what was best for not only me but the entire country. He would say things to intentionally get me fired up, like denying that the wage gap exists or that poor people were poor because they were lazy or that people who couldn't afford health insurance shouldn't get the care they need in hospitals because they have no way of paying for it. My parents would try to mediate the heated arguments that my brother and I would get into over women's reproductive rights, foreign policy, and universal health care, but the discussions would often get so intense that it would only end once one of us left the table.

When you're the only liberal in a room of conservatives, it can get dicey when you try to voice your opinion. It seems like no one is on your side, and they may not be, but that's okay. In order to properly represent a country, we need all different types of opinions and ideas to move forward, whether those ideas be conservative or liberal in nature. While it can be frustrating, don't change your beliefs just because some of the closest people in your life don't agree with you. Try and learn their side, and appreciate that different people can and do have different opinions. But also don't be afraid to voice yours. Your ideas and beliefs are just as important as your mother's and father's, so don't allow them to tell you that yours aren't valid. I've learned that sometimes you can't pick an argument over everything you disagree with in a discussion; it's just not worth the fight every single time. It's okay to let it go every once in a while. You will disagree with your parents, and that's okay.

I know you feel like no one is listening to you, or they say that you just want a government handout because you're a lazy millennial. But that's not what liberals want in the slightest. We want the entire country to feel safe, protected and welcome. America wasn't meant to be only for a small percentage of the population. While we still understand the value of hard work, we also know that we can't get anywhere if not everyone is allowed equal opportunity. Since we want to provide opportunities to others that were never offered them in the first place, we seem like we want the government to just hand us everything. That isn't true either. Liberals believe that there is a way to boost others up without bringing others down. We want to find that balance, and sometimes we are misunderstood in our message. The media portrays a lot of us as angry millennials that just want a handout, but if people actually listened to our words, they would understand what we really want from our government, instead of assuming they already know.

As the generations grow older and are able to express their political opinions through the voting process, the ideas and issues that are present tend to change. We aren't currently fighting against the Plessy v. Ferguson "separate but equal" clause (shoutout to Ms. G, I still remember something!), but we are dealing with immigration reform, a job shortage, and the inclusivity of all people, and still dealing with women's reproductive rights, equal pay, and protection for every type of person. As ideas change, so do the definitions of conservative and liberal ideas, so you should probably recognize that your parents were probably liberal in college but since time has passed, so have the issues and ideas since then. Their priorities are also different since they are providing for a family instead of just themselves. You can't just assume that your parents are always going to disagree with you. A wise coach once told me (many times, definitely not once) that when you assume, it makes an ass out of you and me, so don't label your parents and they probably won't label you. Someday, we may be considered conservative, since our society will hopefully progress to the left.

The most important part about your political beliefs is that you believe them. There's no point in voting for someone because your parents did or voting for someone that you don't wholeheartedly support because someone else thinks you should. Stick to your beliefs, and if people disagree that's okay; just be respectful of their opinions as they should be with yours. Just because they disagree doesn't mean they love you any less, your parents will still love and support you no matter how vastly your political beliefs clash.