On November 8th, the citizens of The United States of America will vote for their 45th President. This year has probably been one of the most controversial presidential races between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and it has been a very close race. With the Presidential election so close, I was both dreading the election and incredibly excited about finally being able to vote. And then I found out I couldn't vote.

I registered to vote in North Carolina when I received my driver's license. When I came to college, I had my mail sent to my grandmother's so I could get it more frequently; because of that, I was removed from the list of registered voters. I didn't realize this until after the deadline to register in either Virginia or North Carolina.

In all honesty, I was not sure who I was going to vote for in this election. I had some knowledge about each of the candidates via the Internet, the Presidential Debates, and a small amount of personal research. Obviously there is a lot of slander about all candidates in the media, which made it very difficult to make a decision about who I thought would be the best President of The United States. In a way, I was relieved that I didn't have to make the decision; for as long as I could remember, society told me that it was important for me to vote, that I had a voice. While I do think that it is important to vote because citizens do have an impact on our country, I did not want to vote because I would have been an uninformed voter. As Election Day approaches, I become all the more disappointed that I am unable to vote. While I know I was initially uninformed about who to vote for, I feel myself pulled in to researching the candidates.

The whole purpose of this article is to encourage readers to vote if they can. If you are registered to vote, please vote. I do not recommend just deciding to go to the polls to vote just to vote. While people may say that citizens don't have any impact because the election rides on the Electoral College, we DO have an impact. Each individual has an impact. If you can vote, become informed about who you want to change our country. For those of you who can't yet vote, I still recommend that you register as soon as possible. Even if you can't vote in this Presidential Election, register to vote for your local elections. The change could start with you.