Growing up, I always thought that politics was something absurd. I grew up in a house full of adults, so I was pretty used to hearing discussions about it every night and day. I wasn't capable of understanding the importance that this had in my country and the world until I reached the age of sixteen. So, what made me change my mind?
In Argentina you are able to start voting at the age of 16, although it isn't obligatory until you turn 18. This year is the first time that my friend and I can start voting and this year's election is the most important because we will vote for the next president. So, the question of if we are going to vote this year starts to be recurrent at school. What I found surprising is that a lot of my classmates don't want to vote because they don't know who to choose because they don’t inform themselves. Their only source of information is through social networks which we teenagers try to navigate. We might not know it, but we are missing a great opportunity to help our country and advocate for our ideas. If we, teenagers, don’t even inform ourselves, how are we going to carry our country in the future?
Something that I strongly believe is that change starts with yourself. Therefore, if we want to see our nation happier, we can’t just sit and wait. Let’s start to do something.
Catalina Kogan is a BBG from Argentina and she's a perfectionist.
All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.