Why It's So Important For Young People To Vote

Growing up in a sheltered, suburban community, learning about politics felt like a waste of energy. I told myself that people will do as they do and systems will run as they run, and that I didn’t have much power to change that. But my perspective shifted on February 14, 2018, when a shooter went into my community’s local high school in Parkland, Florida, and killed 17 students and teachers.

To this day, my stomach still sinks when I recall texting all of my friends at the school to check if they were OK. For at least ten minutes, while I waited for responses, I had no clue if my friends were alive or dead.

I was lucky on that day. My agony lasted ten minutes, while others waited hours on end for responses from their loved ones. And for so many, those responses never came.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, I was hurt and confused, but most of all, I felt stuck. I knew that I didn't want anyone to experience what my community and I had, and I wanted change to happen, but I didn’t know what I, a seventeen-year-old nobody, could do.

When investigations into the incident were published and revealed the failures of countless government agencies and elected officials, I felt like a switch turned on inside my head. Those government agencies and elected officials may not have directly caused the shooting, but their failures allowed the situation to escalate to the point that it did. The realization that leaders, and the laws they make, directly impact my life, as well as the work of the students who started March For Our Lives, showed me why I had to care about politics. I realized that I couldn’t just take a back seat to the political process on any level — that I had to use my right to vote.

I turned 18 right before I left the U.S. for a gap year. While I was abroad, the mayor of my town suddenly died, and an election for his successor was announced. I got in touch with the city and asked how I could obtain an absentee ballot. My friends and even the city officials seemed surprised that I cared enough to vote for mayor from a different country, but I had realized a fundamental truth: Federal elections are certainly important, but there’s so much going on at a local level that impacts our daily lives but that we often overlook.

When the 2018 midterm elections came just a few months later (for which I also requested an absentee ballot!), I researched every single candidate and made an informed decision about who to vote for. I learned about every referendum on the ballot and made educated choices.

I’m not proud of the fact that it took experiencing a horrific tragedy for me to care about politics and to see the value of voting. But I’m happy that I did wake up, and today, I try to pass on that awakening by helping friends register to vote and reminding them about key elections in their regions.

I used to hate “political” people. Today, I couldn’t be prouder to be one of them.