Votes are like ripples. A single stone doesn’t make much of a difference, except for the fact that it disturbs the water around it. It ripples outwards, affecting everything it touches. 

Votes are like ripples. Yes, a single stone, a single vote, once cast into the water, drops like a rock, quickly forgotten underneath the blue depths. The stone itself is lost in a vast expanse of water. The vote goes unseen among the votes of millions. So, based on that logic, the stone doesn’t matter. Except for the fact that it creates a ripple. It affects its surroundings, and although the stone itself may be lost beneath the surface, the water is changed. 

Votes are like ripples. We fall into the trap that a single vote doesn’t matter, because we’re a fraction of a fraction of a percent. We are just a single stone in a very big sea. And to a certain extent, that is true. The vote is not so close that your absence would sway the tide. 

But the power in voting is that by choosing to vote and advertising it, shouting at the top of our lungs that we care and we haven’t given up and that we are still here, it sends a ripple. 

Everything that we do ripples outwards. Kindness, anger, compassion. Voting is the same. Because people change people. We are shaped by the people around us every day, their emotions and thoughts influence our mood, our outlook, our beliefs. 

Our chance for change is not in some far distant future, but now.  

The 2020 Colorado Primaries are Tuesday, March 3. And this is the first election any of us can vote in. If we miss our chance to make a ripple, we cannot get it back. 

Young voters never show up to vote. It’s just a fact. In polls across the United States, young voters time and time again say they are going to vote, only to vanish when the actual vote takes place. 

And yet we are the ones calling for action. We are the ones protesting and posting for change. We are the ones complaining about the system and demanding for better.

But if we don’t vote, we have no right to complain about the system that we are complacent in not changing. Voting is the simplest way to make your voice heard. And if our generation can’t do that, then we aren’t able make our voice heard about anything. 

So make sure that your voice is heard. 

The 2020 Colorado Primaries are on Tuesday, March 3. Here are the requirements. You need to have been a resident of Colorado for 22 days. You need to be 17 years old and turn 18 before the general election.

The form is unbelievably simple. A two minute task. Driver’s license identification number or social security number. First name, last name. Date of birth. Address. The ballot even shows up at your front doorstep. 

Search “USA Gov Register to Vote,” pick Colorado as  your state of residence, and register to vote online in less time than it takes to make breakfast.

That’s all it takes to make a ripple. Five minutes and a few filled out bubbles to make your voice matter.

When you don’t vote, you are saying the status quo is fine with you. That nothing needs to change.

It doesn’t matter what party, what agenda, or even what candidate you vote for. What matters is that you vote. 

Because it takes ripple upon ripple upon ripple to create a wave.

Votes are like ripples. Nothing changes unless you throw the stone.