A lot of the time, people will not say something if they do not know a lot about the topic being discussed.

I am like this with politics.

I will be the first person to say how much I dislike politics and how much I cannot get into learning about it.

But although it is not something I enjoy, as an American student in this country this year, I feel obligated to vote.

I have never been registered to vote before until a few weeks ago here at Shippensburg University.

I was surprised at how good it felt to get my voting slip in the mail, knowing I could finally cast my opinion in something as big as a presidential election.

Back to what I was saying about not knowing a lot about politics, which I do not.

I like to read and I do so frequently, but politics is definitely not something that captures my attention when reading the news or other things.

But as I said, I feel obligated to vote this term and I am looking forward to doing so.

I have learned that although something may not interest you, it may still be extremely important to your life to just man up and learn about it.

My mother is voting for Barack Obama this term.

Now, I am not a fan of “jumping on the band wagon,” so I wanted to do research for myself.

As I listened more and more to Obama’s speeches and campaigns I started to get extremely
comfortable with his words and wants for our country.

And as I listened to Mitt Romney speak, I became very turned off by his beliefs; this is my own judgment.

I started to talk to my mother more about Obama and what he wants for us and what he believes in and realized it really does affect me.

As a student, Obama is the best choice for me to vote for right now.

I believe in a lot of his policies and beliefs in gay rights, being pro-choice, birth control and education.

Those four things are things I feel very strongly about, always have, always will.

He is a man of great words, wisdom and strength for this country.

But are people still ignorant to politics like I was?

Or maybe still am?

I definitely think people are intimidated to voice their opinions and views about politics just because they do not know enough about it.

I know that I feel this way and so does my assistant at the newspaper, Ana Guenther.

We both had no idea how writing an article this week was going to benefit us, because we do not know much about the topic, let alone enough to seem intellegent while writing it.

But while voicing our opinions on what is important to us, through some digging, researching and listening to both candidates, we have become less ignorant to the fact that one of these men is about to change our country in some ways.

Obama may be the best in my eyes because I did the research and listened to topics I felt strongly about and directly affected me as a student, but if other people do not do that, they will be voting for the wrong person or not voting at all.

Nothing is worse than not voting just because you do not know enough about politics. Go on the Internet, look up their counter points and read up; it will not kill you. You may be doing the right thing for our country if you just spend a few minutes learning about what is going on in our country. Take it from someone ignorant of politics, it really feels better to know what is going on, rather than not being able to join a conversation or voice your own opinion about it.

I have an opinion on just about everything that goes on around me, why not have one about this, too?

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