For as long as I can remember, young people have been told that politics is something we will care about later. We will care when we turn 18, when we graduate, when we vote for the first time, or when we finally become adults. Politics, we are often made to believe, is a world that we will eventually enter, but not one that we need to concern ourselves with just yet.

But politics doesn't wait for us to grow up.

The decisions being made today affect our schools, our communities, our families, our opportunities, and the future we are going to inherit. Whether we are old enough to vote or not, we are already living with the consequences of political decisions. So why do we continue to act as though young people should sit on the sidelines?

The truth is that young people are already politically engaged. Open social media and it is impossible to miss. Teenagers discuss elections, debate policies, share political news, organize around causes they care about, and have conversations about issues that previous generations might not have encountered until much later in life. Young people are paying attention. But I think there is a difference between being aware of politics and actually making your voice heard within it.

We need to be more vocal.

That doesn't necessarily mean shouting louder online or turning every disagreement into an argument. Being politically vocal means making sure our opinions reach the people who actually have the ability to do something with them. It means moving beyond the comment section and realizing that politics exists far beyond our phones.

Since I began working in government, I've gotten a closer look at what public service actually looks like. One of the things that has surprised me most is how local and accessible government can be. When we hear the word "politics," it is easy to immediately think about the president, Congress, or a presidential election. But the government is also the city council member who represents your neighborhood, the school board making decisions about your education, and the local officials responding to concerns from residents in their community.

These are people young people can actually reach.

And yet, how often do teenagers write to their elected representatives? How often do we attend a town meeting, speak at a school board meeting, join a youth council, or even look up who represents our district? We often assume that because we cannot vote yet, our opinions don't matter. But being unable to vote does not mean being unable to participate.

There are countless ways for young people to become involved before they ever step into a voting booth. You can volunteer for a campaign, organize around an issue at your school, write for your student newspaper, attend a community meeting, contact your representatives, or simply start paying closer attention to what is happening in your own community. Political participation does not begin at 18. Voting is only one form of participation.

I also think we need to change the way we talk about political involvement among teenagers. You don't need to have every political issue figured out before you are allowed to care. You don't need to identify with a political party. You don't need to know enough about every policy debate to have a voice. Being interested in politics can simply mean being willing to ask questions.

Why does our community work this way? Who made this decision? Who does this policy affect? Whose perspective is missing? What could be done differently?

Those questions are valuable precisely because we are young. We are experiencing our communities from a perspective that adults may not always have. We know what it is like to be a student today. We understand the way young people communicate, what issues are being discussed among our peers, and what concerns are shaping our generation. That perspective deserves a place in political conversations.

Our generation is constantly described as the future. But that description can sometimes become an excuse to overlook us in the present.

We are not only the future. We are students, residents, family members, workers, volunteers, and members of our communities right now. The decisions being made today will shape the world we live in tomorrow, which means we have a reason to care about what is happening today.

Young people don't need to wait until someone tells us that our voices matter. We can start using them now. We can ask questions, pay attention, get involved, and make sure that the people making decisions know that young people are paying attention too.

Politics affects us whether we participate in it or not.

So maybe the question isn't whether young people are old enough to have a voice in politics.

Maybe it's whether we're willing to use the voice we already have.

Author: Subah S. Angel, Intern in the U.S. House of Representatives, Student at Massapequa High School, New York