Being politically active and informed is a foreign concept to my 12-year-old self.

My 12-year-old self would’ve understood that Donald Trump is the president, and that he makes many unhappy, but she wouldn’t have understood why. She lived in a simpler world.

Now that I understand politics, government and bureaucracy, I can’t help but think about how these concepts apply to literally everything.

I now find myself scrolling through my Twitter feed searching for controversial Tweets so that I can stay updated with the latest White House drama.

For me, I always felt that social media was an outlet to express myself, but I would’ve never expected humanity to develop it into a virtual fist fight.

Some of the posts coming from users tend to be hostile, demeaning and quite disturbing.

All of this over what? Over a politician whose policies you disagree with? Or a friend-turned-enemy’s liberal views?

To me none of this is worth the fight.

As I grow older and wiser, I realize that people struggle to just keep their thoughts to themselves and to value their peers’ opinions.

And the issue isn’t just throughout social media, it lies on our very campus and in our very classrooms.

It is so difficult to bring up any sort of serious issue without it turning political. Too often I see donkeys fighting with elephants, and if I’m not mistaken, George Washington strongly opposed this divisive partisanship.

And yes, it is divisive. I have seen friendships begin to tear apart because of political differences. People I have been going to school with since I could hardly remember who were once the quiet, laid back students are now the most actively political teenagers you will ever encounter.

I reminisce about the days when the only thing I feared about the future was whether or not my best friend would like the gift I got for her birthday party, not who I should vote for in the next presidential election.

Don’t get me wrong – I am very much grateful for my knowledge about the government and my ability to actually understand how it works.

However, dare I ask that we not take politics too seriously at this age? After all, we are still ill informed, and the problem is that we don’t see that.

Just because you now know that Paul Ryan is the Speaker of the House does not mean you are qualified to talk about it all the time.

Being politically aware is important, especially in my generation because we millennials are actually able to make a change.

But how do we expect to create change if we are so close-minded, thinking that the policies we believe in and the issues we support are the only right ones?

It’s difficult to refrain from plugging my ears with my fingers while I recite some song I learned as a child just to block out the politics and become a child again.

So for the sake of humanity, myself and your inner 12-year-old self, retain your innocence and for once just stop fighting for something that you can’t control.