They Told Me I’d Be President Someday

Turning 18 provides a certain sense of relief, but not moreso than with regards to one's ambitions and aspirations to achieve something remarkable. I first became fascinated with the American presidents when I was a boy of nine, and within a month, I had them all memorized and began a search for trivial and other knowledge that has thankfully failed to pass, fade, or otherwise absolve itself of any necessity in my mind, not merely ecompassing those formerly-esteemed or reviled men, but all of the history of this nation. My teachers told me I'd be president someday, and I found myself the only fourth-grader wearing suits and preferring literature to television. I was by no means entertaining, but by high school I had learned to liven up my dour personality, a sort of balance between business and pleasure that always leans toward business. I love my family dearly, but I, like many other students in my acquaintance, do firmly believe that the best way to express this love is to place oneself in such a position of success that I have the means to give them the best life possible. Civics class was especially a pursuit that suited my suit-wearing self well, as participation in government is what has made this country composed of cogs run for the past 230 years, and, if she is to live for 230 more, we must revitalize the American fascination with democracy, which is taken for granted by the average person, who has never had to fight for it in the battefield or in the legislative halls. When I see the world, I see beauty, but I also see problems, and I see solutions. It is the civic duty of citizens to become involved in any way possible, and I fully plan to pursue political office to the highest degree I can with lessons, both encouraging and foreboding, from those who have risen and fallen, from the tragic and triumphant fiber of this nation's being. If we learn the history of yesterday and write the history of tomorrow, we can be assured of our security today. I'm different, a kid from Wisconsin with a dream that can't come true for at least 17 years, but maybe that's what this nation needs. They told me I'd be president someday, and who am I to prove them wrong?