With the mark of me and the rest of my senior friends 18th birthday coming up, I wanted to delve into what being 18 really meant. The first thing that come to mind was voting. Although the big presidential election was over a while ago, there are still opportunities for us as incoming freshman in college to vote. Then I started to think some more. People of age do no take as much advantage of the voting system as they can. This is why I believe in compulsory voting.

Compulsory voting is a system in which if a person is registered to vote, you are obligated to do so. The right to vote is something that people many years ago had to fight for the right to obtain. To not cast a vote is ignoring the fact that minorities such as African Americans and women gave their sweat and tears for the fifteenth and nineteenth amendments.

Some might believe that if one does not care about the results of an election, then they should not vote because then they are casting a vote for something they don’t a lot of knowledge on and might help a candidate that might not be in the favor of the community or country as a whole.

Kyle Truvillian, a senior about to turn 18 says, “If one is 18, they should care and be concerned about who their leader and representative will be because that person that is elected is a representation of you.” So, all the seniors out there we are graduating in 2018 but 18 also means we are able to vote so once that birthday rolls through make sure to register and get your voice heard!

Picture Credits Clayton Mendez ’18