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The two most popular reasons as to why our generation doesn’t seem to be going to the polls as much as Baby Boomers and Generation X is that there’s doubt that the millennial population will make an effective dent in our nation’s voting demographic, and that the policies put forth by our nation’s leaders will not be any different whether we cast our votes or not.

Both of these reasons are completely untrue, and it’s about time the record was set straight for all of the confused millennials out there. Our generation’s vote, with all of our participation, has the ability to drastically impact the turnout of this election. The voice that we bring to the table could change the entire game in regards to the topics candidates choose to focus on. We’ll just need to vote for the candidate we can better predict will make these changes happen.

In an  earlier this year, it was found that the population of millennials, defined as anyone ages 18-35, was actually almost tied with the current population of Baby Boomers. There are approximately 69.2 million Millennials, compared to 69.7 million Baby Boomers.

This makes our voice the 2nd largest in our country, and on top of that, 2nd by a very small margin. If our generation were as active as the Baby Boomer population, there’d be a huge shift in the political world. Our candidates would be practically forced to address and cater to what we want to see in the future.

If 69.2 million young people vote with the hope of cheaper college education, higher minimum wage, and that less harm be done to our dying environment, the candidates that stand before us can’t simply ignore these issues and blame it on lack of interest in the country. Well, they could, but the divide between the common people and the elite will only grow.

Have you ever read the “Hunger Games Trilogy”? More specifically the second and third novels? The concept I’m getting at here is rebellion, anarchy that happens once the lower 99 percent doesn’t stand for being overlooked any longer. This is a very real thing that could end up happening, and no leader of the free world wants that.

This brings me to my second point, since we now know that we’re much stronger in numbers than we thought we were — which one of the two very unpopular candidates do we vote for?

Before casting your vote, it’s vital to really think about what is at stake here. Who, of these two candidates, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, will inflict the most change we want to see?

Think about the issues that face our future, our children’s future, and our grandchildren’s future; not so much our parents and grandparents future.

Physically, what is the current state of our world? Small Pacific islands are sinking and temperatures are rising. Climate change is an evident threat, if you have your doubts, simply look it up. Trump fully believes that climate change is a hoax, and Hillary has addressed it and pushes for clean energy.

Moving on, a very large portion of us are living paycheck to paycheck to afford the minimal cost of living or outrageous college tuition, in many cases, like my own, both. Trump has released a plan that touches on making college tuition more affordable, but has yet to explain how he’ll make that happen. Hillary chose to adopt Bernie Sanders’ plan to make community college free across the nation, paid for by increased taxes that will be inflicted on the top 1  percent. Adopting this plan of Bernie’s is also to show that Hillary is more willing than the alternative to be swayed left. This may seem like a petty reach for millennial votes, but we must pay attention to this nonetheless.

Hillary has also been a strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights and necessary paid maternity leave. Trump has time and time again expressed that a woman, especially one with a child, is “bad for business”.

Will this view have a positive effect on our nation’s evident wage gap issue, where a woman gets paid 75 cents for every man’s dollar? Will this view have a positive effect on the very small percentage of girls that go on to pursue a professional degree and career, especially in the S.T.E.M. field?

As for gun control, yet another massive issue in our country today, I think we can all say we’d like to see fewer people getting shot dead in our streets. Clinton is calling for stricter gun control laws, comprehensive background checks, and less military grade weapons in normal society. Trump stands for the second amendment, and although he agrees “the guns need to be taken away from the bad people,” he has no clear approach to how he’d accomplish this.

The conclusion is, many of the people in this generation are calling for change, and no one is sure if it’s positive change we’re going to get from either of these candidates. To be frank, this is very demoralizing, it really is; however, we need to work with what we’ve got. Hillary is evidently willing to work to achieve most of what we want, and Trump … not so much. When you go out on election day in November and cast your vote, I trust you will cast a vote for the future.