I love having a platform to speak my mind. I love sharing my knowledge of lesser known subjects with people.

You've probably noticed that I've only ever written one political article during my time at Odyssey.

That's because everywhere I go (be it in public or on social media) people are getting slammed left and right for having an opinion. Yes, your First Amendment right to have the freedom of speech is getting more and more difficult these days. It doesn't matter what the topic is or what anyone says.

You could comment on Facebook saying that you don't like potato chips one minute, and then the next minute you come back to find derogatory and name calling comments all because you said you didn't like potato chips.

You may be laughing right now, wondering how someone can get so heated over potato chips, but it seems like everywhere I go, people are bickering over the stupidest things.

I feel like we should all go back to elementary school and learn that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

However, knowing the world we live in, I would probably get slammed for saying that because it's a free country and people are 'entitled' to say whatever they please.

See the stupidity in that statement?

That's what we've come to! People would rather take the time and explain why they're right than keep their mouth shut and scroll on.

I've found it harder and harder to keep my mouth shut over things, silently agreeing with political stances by retweeting things on Twitter.

But the moment you click on Facebook, it's one drag after another. Why have we come to this? Why can't we just let everyone be?

It's okay for everyone to have an opinion. What's not okay are those people who comment after the fact and start an all-out comment brawl. Half the time, you're just saying things behind a screen to people you don't even know all because they're wrong in your eyes.

Why don't you just open your eyes a little more and notice that everyone is different and everyone doesn't think like you do?

It's what makes us all unique, and having someone tear down our own opinion only makes things worse, and contributes to the hate that's been circling around our country lately.

Opinions are great and you should have one.

You shouldn't be commenting negatively on other people's things, especially if you don't know them. On the other hand, if you feel like you should keep your opinion to yourself because of the fear of others, feel free to.

Just know that your opinion matters, forget what anyone else says.

And in the words of one of my favorite people in the music industry, Harry Styles, "Be nice to nice."