Time spent at college is time involving a lot of decision-making. Most students feel pressured to find an occupation they’ll stick with for the rest of their lives.

As students, we are so bogged-down in our own little worlds, and many of them are only able to look to those tough post-graduate years where we try our hardest to hack away at our student debts and pick out the best job we can. What many tend to shut out are the happenings in the world around them.

In spite of what many would term political ugliness between gubernatorial candidates Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott, it’s an issue in which everyone’s voices matter – especially students’.

Don’t cite modern American political hostility as another reason to neglect important issues that can and will affect you, or even your children, should you decide to raise them in a state where primary education has long lost its luster. Texas’ education system is currently facing potential changes promised by both Davis and Abbott. Pay attention to who will push the most for equality in every sense, and who aims to make college more affordable and easier to pay off.

As students, it’s imperative that we involve ourselves with politics now, which can be difficult for many of us who have had subpar government and politics courses at the high school level.

It may be confusing, but that’s no excuse to leave the issue alone and try not to understand it. The better we understand our government, the better we can work to get it to do what we want and achieve a bit more balance in our lives.

As we rise in society, it’s time we take responsibility for a government that largely depends on us to function.

We are college students; we no longer have the security of blissful ignorance in which we can hide from the big issues. We are here to tackle those issues and engineer a brighter future for ourselves and those who come after us.

If there’s something we don’t know or understand, we should actively seek enlightenment — that is the student’s prerogative.

If you don’t know enough to vote, you have the tools at your disposal to learn. If you do know, get out to the polls and show Texas that all 40,000 of us Cougars can — and will — make a difference.

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“Gubernatorial elections: Vote now or forever hold your peace” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar