The Right to Vote

I remember being 17 when I got my driver’s license. I made sure to practice my parking, make sure to not do any “California stops” (rolling through a stop sign with no one present) when I would practice with my Dad. However, there was one thing that I was even more excited about than getting my license, it was registering to vote. I know that may seem crazy to some, but I was a different kind of teenager and it started way earlier than that. See when I was a kid, I was obsessed with the news. I would come home from school, do my homework, watch some cartoons and then finish my TV time by watching the news. I was a 10 year old who would read the newspaper on Sundays and I loved it.
My parents would always encourage my curiosity and my thirst for knowledge stemming from different sources. I remember watching Connie Chung (goddess) on the Evening News. There were stories about the economy, violence in cities, drug wars. I just remember wishing that I could have a say and thinking that when I grew up I would stand up for people, for kids like me who wanted things to be better for everyone. One of the things that my father instilled in me before passing was not only a love of politics, but an appreciation of what generations before me, before him, went through for the right to vote. I’ve always felt it as a privilege that I could carry the torch for those no longer here, for those whose voices are silent out of oppression and suppression. That I can fulfill the dream of a 10 year old who wanted to make things better for everyone.