Dear United States population,

I am ashamed to admit that I am one of the 231,556,662 people that did not vote on November 8th. I did not vote because I did not think my vote would make a difference. I didn’t think my voice mattered. The 2016 election taught me to never believe this again.

I’m not saying that my one single vote would have actually altered the election. I live in Upstate New York, and my vote would, in reality, only have been a drop in the bucket. However, I realize now it’s not my vote itself. It is the very thing I, as this type of individual, represent. I didn’t vote because I fell into the misbelief that I didn’t need to; because I believed with full conviction we would not reach this point. In my mind, there was no way Trump would become president.

As hindsight is twenty/twenty, I realize now where my biased beliefs stem from. In part, it is due to the fact that the majority of my news comes from social media. What I didn’t factor in was that social media lacks a key demographic: the 60+ age group. Everything I saw on social media was so anti-Trump, that I incorrectly assumed it accurately reflected the opinions of everyone else in our society. I was wrong and I am so sorry.

The other fault is my lack of voter efficacy. I fell into laziness. Things in motion stay in motion. Things in rest do not move to get out and vote and take the extra measures to ensure a fitting president is elected. Seeing this part of me scares me, especially because I am not typically a lazy person. I work hard and constantly push myself to be better academically, personally and spiritually. However, I had such false reassurance that I felt this was not something I ought to "waste my time with." In managing my time, this didn't make it on my schedule as top priority. It should have though.

In the future, I will not make this mistake again. I will not allow my voice to go unheard. I want to, from now on, say with confidence that I stood for my beliefs, rather than passively letting them come to be. I hope this election, if nothing else, convinces other millennials like me to actually get out and vote. I hope it becomes a lesson for what can happen when we falsely assume that everything is okay and that we don’t have to do anything about it.

America, I let you down. I’m sorry. If you were like me, I'm not going to say, "It's okay. Don't feel so bad." You should feel bad. It's painful to learn and grow. However, I encourage you to channel this guilt and make this a reminder for you. Your vote does make a difference. You can change America. Maybe your "one vote" doesn’t matter, but everyone’s "one vote" certainly does. From those who didn’t vote: We’re so sorry. Please forgive us for our ignorance.

With remorse,

A never again non-voter