When I turned 18, I did three important things. First of all, I bought some lottery tickets. I wanted to play the lottery because I worked at the Hy-Vee customer service counter, and if I had to sell them, I figured I should get to buy them. (In South Dakota, where I’m from, you only have to be 18 to buy lottery tickets.)

Then, I purchased a pack of cigarettes. These I wanted to buy just to do something I had never done before. Also, I wanted to fulfill part of the song “Stay (Faraway, So Close)” by U2, which goes:

“Green light, 7-11, you stop in for a pack of cigarettes. You don’t smoke, don’t even want to. Hey now, check your change.” So two of my friends went with me to 7-11, I bought a pack of cigarettes, and I put them in the glove compartment of my car.

(I didn’t ever smoke those cigarettes. They were stolen out of my car later that year, I think by a sophomore guy who would sometimes bum rides.)

I did one other important thing after I turned 18: I registered to vote.

I turned 18 in the fall of 1995, which was an off-year for elections. So my first election was in the spring of 1996.

Since both President Clinton and now-Sen. Tim Johnson were unopposed in the South Dakota democratic primaries, it wasn’t the most important election. But I was determined to vote — for school board, for the state Senate, whatever.

I wanted to vote.

Walking into that polling place on election day, marking off my name, filling out my ballot — these were rites of passage for me. It was the first day I felt grown up, like I was doing something really important.

It also gave me a sense of empowerment. I know I made a difference by voting. Some of my candidates won, some lost, but I felt more “citizen-ish” by voicing my opinion to the powers that be.

So why all the nostalgia for my 18th birthday and my first election?

This Tuesday is election day. It also happens to be my 21st birthday.

I’m not sure yet how I’ll celebrate my new legality, except for one thing: I’m going to vote.

Young adults all over the country are always making excuses for why they don’t vote. They don’t care about politics, they don’t know what’s going on, they don’t even remember who’s running.

These excuses are completely worthless.

You have no excuse for not voting. It is your responsibility to care about politics because decisions about your lives are made by the people in Washington and Des Moines.

You have no reason for not knowing the candidates or the issues. Everywhere you look this fall is election information.

As of tomorrow, a profile about every major candidate for whom Ames residents can vote will have been on the front page of the Daily. If you’re not educated, you never will be.

This election isn’t like my first election. These are important races for positions that will directly influence our futures.

If you don’t vote now, you have no excuse for complaining about high taxes, or social security, or even your student loans.

The last time my birthday fell on election day, it was Nov. 3, 1992. I remember it well, because it was the day William Jefferson Clinton was elected to the presidency.

On the day I turned 15, a Democrat took the White House for the first time since I had been born into the Jimmy Carter years.

It was sort of a momentous occasion for me, because it was the first time someone I wanted in the White House actually won. I looked at it as kind of a birthday present.

This year, I would like a different kind of birthday present. I would really like Iowa State students to make an impact in this election. (I would also like a strawberry daiquiri, if anyone’s buying.)

Maybe you’re like so many students. You don’t care about politics, you don’t think what government does matters, so you don’t participate in elections.

Help me celebrate my birthday anyway.

Vote.

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Sara Ziegler is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, S.D. She is managing editor of the Daily.