Picture this – you’re working all day under the sun. Your arms are aching with heavy weight, your backside is on fire, and your face is glistening red with sweat and hope. You’re surrounded by so many people like you, people working toward a better future for themselves and for those they care for. Minutes feel like hours, hours last days, and days feel like weeks. But still, you carry on. You carry on because you know you will give opportunities to future generations that were not given to you. You carry on, because the love for your family is stronger than the pain you feel. You carry on, because in your heart you know that what you are doing will one day make a difference. My grandfather and his father came to America looking for work to make money and provide for their families. They worked hard, harder than most people have had to, with people working against them. My grandmother had to work in the fields under the hot, blistering sun in order to help put food on the table. But in the end, they were proud of their hard work, like many Americans are today. People who go through this, like my grandparents, come to America in the search for life, liberty, and happiness. They come to America so future generations can prosper in ways they never did. They come to America to change their lives for the better.

The Reagan Amnesty is the reason I am even able to write this. It’s the reason that so many people can call themselves U.S. citizens. It’s the reason my family, along with millions of others, can vote for a better future. So much has been sacrificed for our right to vote. This great nation went through periods of war, desperation, and tears for us – and we shouldn’t let that be in vain. I know I won’t. We have the opportunity to choose who we want to represent and lead us because we don’t live under tyrants anymore; we live in a democracy. We have the power to control the direction our country is headed, wherever that may be. Every single one of us can make a difference if we want to, by voting.

A single vote may not seem like much, but it could be the difference between life and death. It can determine whether or not a baby born with a defect gets the treatment they need. It can determine if a young adult with cancer gets chemotherapy. It can determine whether our brave veterans have access to the care they deserve. Even if a vote only affects one person, it still matters. It shows you not only care about the future of this country, but also the lives of future generations.

Thomas Brecht once wrote a poem called “A Worker Reads History.” This eye-opening poem questions the history(or lack thereof) of the lower class people. It opens up discussion on what is the truth, and why it was not included in the first place. This poem shows that history is written by the victorious and the important, and often leaves out the struggles of the ‘remainders’ and the workers. It says that behind all great things are the people who made them, but we only see who or what is in the front. Brecht questions, “Who built the seven gates of Thebes?/The books are filled with names of kings … At whose expense the victory ball?” 

Well, who built America? It was built for the people, by the people. We are a country full of remainders, and we need to write our own history. That history begins with voting.

I may not be able to currently vote, but I will in the 2022 midterms. Voting is not just a long wait to write on a piece of paper, but a step toward a better future. I will vote because I can change the lives of those like my grandparents, whose faces are glistening red with sweat and hope. I will vote because I can be the difference between life and death. I will vote because I do not want the people in this country to live in a state of fear. We should all vote, for it is our vote that will change the way future generations will live – and that will allow them to prosper in ways we never did.