I am disappointed in Iowa after this election and I am disappointed with our country as well, but nothing hurts my wounds more than knowing only 13 percent of my peers voted. 

The voter turnout rate for Iowa during this year’s midterm election was 50.6 percent, which is down from the 2010 midterm elections, but only by a mere .1 percent. That means basically half of Iowa’s eligible voters turned out. 

Nationwide, voter turnout statistics are not looking so great. Only 12 states saw voter turnout growth from the 2010 midterm elections, but the most devastating statistic from the entire midterm elections has to be the young voter turnout. 

On a nationwide scale, only 13 percent of voters were under the age of 30. So, a large majority of people in this country who are in college, just out of high school or starting their first real job, didn’t care or think about this year’s midterm elections. 

You would think with so much at stake for young voters, such as student loan reform, healthcare, women’s issues, minimum wage and climate change, they would pay attention and take part in our government. 

Let me explain why the young voter turnout rate in this country completely frightens me. A lot of the issues at stake don’t really affect me. The only setback I have is being gay and I have survived so far. 

Of course I would love an increase in pay from my minimum wage job in retail, but if it must stay at $7.25, I can continue to scrape by, with help from my parents, luckily. 

All my bills, including my tuition, are paid for. I haven’t had to take out a loan yet in my life, and I’ve never even filled out a request for financial aid. While my other peers in high school were filling out FASFA’s, loan applications and scholarships, I was busy planning a trip to NYC for my graduation present from, you guessed it, my parents. 

Let me explain. I filled out scholarship applications too, just not nearly as many. For me, it was almost like a lottery game. I could receive some money by playing, but if it didn’t end up going my way, it didn’t matter because I had a safety net. 

The majority of kids in my graduating class however, did not have a safety net and for most of them it wasn’t a game at all. It was life or death. 

So if I have nothing to worry about, why should I care so much about our government, let alone elections? If the people these policies actually affect don’t seem to care, then why should I?

There are many reasons I believe the voter turnout among our youth is so low, but I want to highlight the ones I am seeing among my friends and fellow Millennials. 

For one, no one seems to know how our government in this country even works. There seems to be this false sense of complete control by President Barack Obama. Most people feel President Obama has complete control over the things and issues that occur in this country. 

Obama has faced constant backlash and criticism ever since he took office. Many people fail to recognize it was the Bush Administration that caused the recession of 2008. More importantly and more recently, it is forgotten that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives shut down our government last fall, because they did not want the Affordable Healthcare Act to pass even though today statistics show the program is working. 

Our economy has been on a steady road to recovery with every major setback in Obama’s presidency, due to lack of support from the GOP. Instead of working with Democrats for solutions to problems Obama is trying to fix, the Republicans have thrown a now six year-long pity party due to the GOP’s loss in the last two presidential elections.

This means midterm elections matter. This means your voice matters. I volunteered my time during this past election season, and even though the people I didn’t want to win did, I will still be able to live the same way I have before. I do graduate this May and my parents financial support will come to a screeching hault, but I can’t wait until things actually affect me, I need to start now. 

I want everyone to have a fair shot and even I, an upper-middle class white boy from rural Iowa, know how hard people are struggling. If people my age would just wake up and pay attention, maybe officials that accurately represent us could be elected. 

I did all I can and now the election is over. I just hope everyone re-thinks their actions and starts to speak up, regardless if you are drowning in a sea of student debt or not. We are all Americans and it’s time we start acting like it.