You disagreeing with my views does not take away my right to vote.

I felt the need to lead with that before any of what I say is misconstrued. I won’t even say what my political party is, because due to the polarization of our bipartisanship, anyone with opposing political views might end their reading here.

As an American, you have the right (and the privilege) of having a say in who will make the decisions on the Big Issues. You also have the right to choose who will make the decisions in your state, and more directly, your town. The decisions that your national and local governments make will affect your day to day life. So you go out to the polls and cast your vote for who will be in charge. You’re given your right to vote in the Constitution; in fact, it is the single right that appears most often in the Constitution—five times, to be exact.

Throughout history, not every American had the right to vote. Even if you’re a millennial, your grandparents may have lived during a time that women and young people were still not allowed to vote. To put that in perspective, it’s considerably recent that we’ve all been giving this privilege. Our ancestors fought for us to have the right to be represented fairly in the country we were born or reside in. There were literally whole movements dedicated to fighting for every American citizens’ right to vote. Think of Dred Scott v. Sandford of 1857, giving freed slaves, who were American citizens, the right to vote. Think the women’s suffrage movement of 1848-1920, giving women the right to vote. Think of the 26^th amendment of the 1960’s, which lowered the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old and opened up the polls to more adults in the United States.

People fought for these rights because they hoped for a better future, a working democracy in which we all have the choice to stand with a candidate who believes in the same values and ideals we do. So now it’s your time to step up. Vote for who you believe in. Don’t listen to the people who are so stuck in their ways that they want to impose their anecdotal values on you.

Many people back Hillary Clinton. Many people back Donald Trump. Others back 3^rd party candidates such as Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. If you’ve researched a candidate and thought, “Wow, yeah, I totally agree with that. I think this is the person who can help the country progress in a successful way,” literally no one has the right to take that away from you.

Don’t listen to the person who wants to argue that your candidate wants to take away our Constitutional rights, yet also wants to discourage you from exercising your Constitutional right to vote since your views oppose theirs. If they’re hypocritical they’ll probably vote for a hypocritical candidate—but hint, hint, they have the right to vote for who they want as well.

So run over to your polling place, ignore the stares of people who disagree with you. Ignore the Facebook comments of the people who are ignorantly trying to persuade you to agree with their ideals and dissuade you from casting that ballot. Check your boxes, pick up your “I Voted!” sticker, and wear it with pride. No matter the outcome of the election, you’ll feel much better leaving that polling place when you’ve voted for someone who you feel can actually make a change for the better,.