Now, you may be thinking, why would a lowly teenager like me (who isn’t even old enough to vote) be interested in the presidential election? Well, even if I cannot cast a ballot, I do care where this country is headed, because, frankly, it’s the adults who are deciding my future.

I consider myself lucky to be relatively politically aware and to have my friends the same. I think it’s a pity that most kids and teens aren’t interested in politics because they don’t think it affects them. WRONG. The leaders of this country are creating the world of the future. And we all belong to the future, especially the younger generation. If people don’t care about electing future leaders, then they shouldn’t lament how horrible their situation has become in the future, because they didn’t try to change that outcome when they had the chance.

Now, I’m going to remain neutral in this post, because my point is not to persuade people to vote a certain way but to try show the benefits of being more politically aware. I don’t know, if the knowledge that electing certain people could mess with the future you want doesn’t make you want to be politically active or at least aware, then I don’t know what will.

Part of the problem with politics is the stickiness, evasiveness, lying, and just general politician qualities that make it so difficult for people, especially young people who are trying to figure out their political philosophy, to understand what each candidate stands for. And this only discourages people from trying to become politically aware, because, trust me, it is a LOT of hard work to find out who’s right and who’s wrong and what’s really going on. And then there’s the whole internal debate of if you agree with this or that issue. Just ignoring this whole mess would be the easy way out. Unfortunately, making a country run smoothly has never been easy, and in order to make it do so, people have to work hard from the bottom up.

So, I encourage everyone, especially young people, to watch the debates online, if you haven’t already. Visit Obama’s and McCain’s websites. Some other great sites to check out are Ya for Obama, YA for McCain, and MyDebates.org.

Don’t let your future be decided for you.