As the final days of the election come upon us, I've been thinking a lot about how my political values and views have changed over the course of my life. I'm 18 years old and this is the first election I will be voting in. I was raised in a Christian, and pretty conservative household. These values were never pushed on me, but as I got to be older and knew more about what was going on in politics I decided I was a Republican. My mom let me get a Facebook account at thirteen, and when I set up my account, Facebook asked me what my political party was and I proudly put in Republican. As I got a little older, I realized that maybe my values didn't line up with the values of a Republican, but I maintained that I was one and I would pick and choose who I felt melded best with my values when I got the opportunity to vote. When Obama first ran for President, I was vehemently against him, but as the 2012 elections rolled around, my views had changed and I wanted him to stay in office because I liked his vision of what the United States could become.

I was 11 when he first ran, still strongly rooted by my parents and 15 when he ran again in 2012, I was able to gather my own information and could more properly form an opinion. Now as I am nearly 19, I am a proud Democrat and feminist. I maintain my Christian faith, but I choose not to force other people to abide by the "rules" most conservative Christians believe in. I am for same sex marriage, I am pro-choice, I want to fight for equal pay, I believe a woman's place is in the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and in the oval office. I don't want to take away people's rights to have firearms, but I do want more restrictions on what it takes to get a gun license, and how you can purchase a firearm. I want good universal healthcare (I'm not saying ObamaCare is the God's gift to man, it needs so much work, but we are headed in the right direction). I want education reform, police reform, and for the sexes and races to be equal.

I thank my parents for raising someone who as the ability to think her own thoughts, share her own opinions, and form new ones based on the values they raised me with. This election is a scary one and I am taking the responsibility of voting very seriously. I am voting for Hilary Clinton to the majority of my extended family's dismay. I am a Democrat, and a feminist, and I refuse to stand by and let the people of this country elect someone who is not looking out for the country's interest, but rather his and his company's interest. I will not stand by and help elect someone who wants to define Planned Parenthood, a service that provides a large majority of women's healthcare, whether it be STD testing, breast exams, birth control or an abortion for a women who has gotten raped or who simply made a mistake because she never got an education on how to protect herself from becoming pregnant.

I want a President who sees this country as great and wants to do everything in her power to make it better. I want a president with experience, who wants to fight for a better tomorrow for every kid in the great country we live in. So if you're voting this year (and you should if you can), take a serious look at both of the candidates, look at their policy, how they've lived their lives, who they've aligned themselves with and pick whoever you think can run this country best. Gather your information from different sources from both political leanings and don't be scared to go back and forth between both candidates. Or vote third party if Trump or Hilary aren't doing it for you. Just get out and vote, because our ancestors fought for that freedom and we would be doing them a great disservice if we didn't do our duty as Americans and vote for who we think can improve our country over the next four or eight years.