Unfortunately, I can’t vote. It’s not that I don’t or won’t, but I can’t. When I have to tell people that I can’t register to vote, they automatically assume it is because of my age and ignore the actual problem: citizenship.

I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, therefore, I am an Argentinian citizen and am currently a permanent resident with a green card. Despite living in the US for 13 years, I am still not a US citizen. Explaining this situation to people raises doubts regarding my legal status. In other words, some people assume that I am an illegal immigrant with sketchy, fake paperwork.

Honestly, it sucks to live in a country where I am given suspicious looks after stating that I am not a citizen. I have gotten people who have asked me, “How do you attend school?” and “Are you legal?”

The disregard of certain people really aggravates me sometimes. I’m not arguing for or against undocumented immigrants, that’s not what this article is about, I’m simply arguing against the ignorance of people in general, particularly when it comes to political issues.

I personally never talk about politics publicly because I’m all over the place. I’m an open book when it comes to people explaining their views based on factual evidence. Nonetheless, it annoys me when people can’t even provide warrants for their claims. Basically, I’ll listen to your arguments if you can support them.

Regardless of how crazy this election is, I still wish I could vote. As often as everyone says it, it’s true that voting really is a privilege. Seeing my classmates get excited about turning 18 right in time for the election actually made me really jealous. For my sake of citizenship, please go out and vote!