Yesterday, while at my internship I had one of those revelation moments. I was in a meeting with co-workers and someone made a comment about Newt Gingrich. Apparently, I made a face that sparked my bosses interest. The whole meeting erupted into a funny, pick on your co-worker type of debate. Everyone was contributing to the conversation and making little stabs at past and present candidates/presidents/congressional members. This is where my revelation began: I'm growing up.
I'm sure we all remember those moments when we were kids where we walked away from our parents because they were talking about politics, tax increases and other stuff that we really didn't care about. I know I remember. But, that is all different now. I love learning about politics and business, I follow the news and I have an opinion that I'm willing to express on major issues. Participating in the conversation, as funny as it was, made me see myself as more of a co-worker instead of the "intern." It made me realize that we can no longer be in that "run from the word politics" stage. Politics and business impact us at an enormous level. And it will continue to be that way as we graduate, get married, buy houses, have kids and retire. For too long Americans have remained in the background and complained about what the government is doing, the endless corporate scandals or how the president hasn't fixed anything. Instead of voting for a candidate based on their rhetoric and how flashy their campaign is, we need to take a few minutes to look into what the person plans to offer.
If you want to see change, the change starts with you.