As I sit here in my English class, many questions come to mind.  Questions that I feel I shouldn't have to worry about being only eighteen, and yet, still I sit here, pondering them.

    Am I safe?  That I don't know, anymore.  When I was younger, I would go outside, and play with my friends after school, and not have to worry at all about the security of our nation, nor did I really care at the time.  But now, being a first time voter in the new election year, the simple question that I always took for granted seems much more complex.  After witnessing 9/11 and seeing the complete pandemonium and devastation it caused, I've become more and more concerned with this question.  Safety, it seems so simple, and yet if that is so, then why do people die each year from different terrorist, racist, and gang-related groups?  Why must these families all across the United States have to suffer the tragedy of loss?  Why?  Is is not said in our constitution that as citizens of the United States we are entitled to the right of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?  If we continue to allow this suffering that people have to endure, due to these such groups, we may as well remove the Bill of Rights from our beautifully written constitution.  So as president, I would like to know what measures you will take to keep my family, my friends, and me safe?   

    As a full time student I see and understand the necessity of education in our society.  But at what cost must it come?  Many times I see students come out of college with more problems than success.  How many times have you heard of a student coming out of college, finding a job in their related field of study, and begin saving money to support them through life?  Not very often.  More times than not, you hear of a student after graduating from college (if they made it that long) that comes out without a job in their related field, possibly in an alcoholic rehabilitation facility, and in debt up to their eyeballs!  I'm told almost every day that if I want to make it in life, I need that college degree checked beside my name, but I'm beginning to see more negatives that come from this than positives.  Why is this?  What can and will you do to fix this?  What "change" will you make?  

    Another issue you must face is immigration.  I hear some of the most horrible things imaginable directed toward different racial groups.  How can we deny people into our country, when it was built on exactly what we are talking down upon, immigration?  When you see and hear through the media some of the terrible things that happen to people within the United States (murder, rape, bombings, etc) and then you see people from outside America, risking their lives just to get in, it makes you wonder just how horrendous their lives must be, and how greedy we truly are to deny these people into our country.  It is pretty sad that we require these immigrants to pass a civil rights test, when the majority of the people here couldn't pass themselves.  So if this election is really about "change" then what "change" will you make?  How will you better the lives of the citizens in the U.S. as well as the ones that want to join our side?  It's all about change.

    I congratulate you on your accomplishment in making it this far, but your real journey begins now. Good luck.