Bedu Times
Why should you vote?
By: Kiya G. Pasley
Well, an experience changed my views about voting and how important it is. So to understand where I am coming from I should start with the beginning.I was a senior in high school class of 2004. I was more excited about getting out of high school that I forgot what you have to do to make that happen. I remembered that about a month before school ended my junior year a guy came into my U.S history class saying �YOU SHOULD BE IN AP GOVERNMENT NEXT YEAR!�I of course being not full aware of myself and abilities said in my mind sure I�ll sign up for it but I wont take it. That would have worked but the guy�s name was Dayle Mazzerella and he was on a mission. His mission was to change the way people saw Oceanside High school. This was set for people associated with the school and not associated with the school. When Oceanside was what it was then, parents would rather have their children go to this other school I wont mention. It was �better� then Ohs. Their standards were �higher� then ours. I don�t think that�s true one bit. I always thought a little sprucing up of the school could have a long lasting effect on ohs. As Mr. Mazzerella started his mission I was unaware of his �power� so to speak. When I started that fall of 2003 I found out that indeed I was enrolled in his class no doubt. At first I was like haha your funny Mr. Mazz (which later would be all of his name you needed to say for someone to recognize him) I am not staying in this Class for long. I was wrong and ended up sticking to it. One reason was to prove to myself I could be in a �smart persons class�. Anther reason was that I wanted to graduate saying SEE I have something special to go along with that Diploma.The one thing I found that I wasn�t Prepared for was how rigorous it was to be.Mr. Mazz gave the whole speech at the begining. �My name is Mr. Mazzerella call me Mazz or Mr. Mazz�. Then there was the �This is how hw is to be done�. test will count this much� and all that Jazz. As the semester grew into length I realized that this was going to be a challenge. I maintained a C for about 2 weeks maybe and then it went down hill from there. I didn�t understand the material and did horribly on the tests. Mr. Mazz always seemed to be optimistic. He new that there was kids in his class that could do it and that wanted to do well in his class. There were the times were there were some �Dingalings� as he called them that wouldn�t do their homework and he would bust out an inspirational story. This was his motivation rather then ragging like some teachers do. By the second semester people dropped and few stayed in. Mr. Mazz assured us that if we stuck to it then we could pull this off. One thing that I have failed to mention is that an AP class is mostly to prepare for an AP exam that students take in May. The test has essay portions and multiple choice part. If students do well on the test (scores being 1,2,3,4,5 one being a thanks for coming and 5 being WOW your smart) then they could have college credits for college in a government course. At the time I did not care for the Ap test I wanted to just pass the class. As the second semester rolled on my grade was what it was and I needed to change it. Mr. Mazz not giving up on us said that we had an option. It was that we would go to tutoring and raise our grade or don�t and fail. So I asked myself, �Self do I want to graduate?� "YOU DO!" "Well then you better get off that ass and study!" So I listened to me and went to Mr. Mazz�s tutoring. I ended up raising my grade from an F to a C. (I had over 23 hours worth) I felt so great about my self. After graduation was said and done I saw that I could make an even bigger difference if I voted. With the election just around the corner I filled out my voters card and turned it in. You can make a difference by putting in your two cents. It gives you the power to put who we could have as our leader and who NOT to have as our leader. Whatever reason you have for not voting...take that reason and change into a reason why you should vote. Then look at the outcome if you do vote...which one is more positive? You decide that one.....
