Our Opinion: Students need to take the time today to cast a vote in the mid-term election.

What are you doing today? Aside from going to class and other daily rituals — are you voting?

It might not be a presidential election year, but it is still just as important. This election has the potential to shape the course of the nation — both domestically and abroad.

Our country was founded on the idea that we can choose who leads us. Of course, this has resulted in a two-party system filled with left- and right-wing extremes, but we still have a choice.

Through not caring and taking our votes for granted, things might happen that we don’t like.

For those of you who were eligible to vote in the 2004 election and didn’t, if you are displeased with the direction in which our country is going, you have no right to be upset.

Bumper stickers and Facebook groups are great tools for expressing feelings, but unless you have a voting history that reflects your ideals and preferences, they are just decorative fluff.

If you don’t take a few minutes out of your day to cast a vote — the most powerful thing you can do as an American — you are raising a white flag into the air, saying you don’t care what happens with war, taxes, abortion, gay marriage, immigration — everything.

You might think your vote doesn’t matter because you are just one person, but if our entire student body shared the same sentiment, more than 30,000 voices would go unheard.

Our parents’ generation spent its college years protesting the government and standing up for causes that mattered to it. Our generation has become obsessed with trends and technology, rather than spending time and energy on taking a look at the big picture.

One day, this generation is going to run this nation. If we show apathy and complacence through under-representation at the polls on Election Day, we take the chance of setting up our nation for a future of disappointment.

If you invested a fraction of the intellectual energy you exert while combing through grade distribution reports during course registration periods into researching candidates and their stances on issues that are important to you, the country as a whole would benefit.

So take a couple of minutes out of your busy Tuesday and make a difference. Take advantage of the right for which countless people in history have died.

Vote.