“I guess I’m just not going to vote this election. I don’t trust Hillary and Trump is an idiot.” As I walk down the hall on a Wednesday morning, I hear a senior say these words to her friends.

“Totally. This election is so ridiculous, there’s like no good candidate,” her friend says back to her.

I felt compelled to stop and say something, but I decided not to. The amount of people who say they will not vote because they don’t like either candidate is shocking and disappointing to say the least.

We live in a society where we are lucky enough to have the privilege to elect our leader, and not participating in this because you are too stubborn to pick a candidate is one of the least patriotic things someone can do. As I see it, you have no right to complain about your president if you did not cast your vote.

According to Pew Research, this election has the highest percent of teens planning to vote (74 percent). This is great news to me, however I still hear those sad words every day: “I don’t think I’m even going to vote.”

To me, it is terrible to hear this. I hear so much Trump-bashing on a daily basis in Marin, but at the same time I hear so much negativity about even participating in the election. So if Trump is your president and you didn’t vote, you don’t have the right to be upset. You did nothing to stop it.

According to Zen College Life, the number one reason teens do not vote is because they feel their vote won’t make a difference. This excuse is weak and hypocritical. Your vote absolutely matters, and you should do everything in your civil power to elect your leader.

Not only that, but it is amazing that you live in a country that gives you the right to pick someone you want to not only lead America, but the rest of the world. This kind of power is given to very few teens, let alone citizens, in this world.

Our founding fathers did not create such a marvelously free nation for you to skip the election because you “don’t like either candidate.” That is just obnoxious, in my opinion.

Come election day in November, I urge you to get out to your local voting booths and cast your selection for who you want as the leader of the free world.