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In twenty-five years, I am going to look back on my twenties in awe. Not because I am doing great things, but because I am observing great things. My generation has experienced incredible life-changing events.

President Clinton redefined the image of President; September 11th shattered our lives; President George W. Bush was not only elected once, but twice; America declared war on Iraq and Afghanistan; homosexuality became a household word; Ronald Reagan laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda; terrorism became a daily struggle; the United States Senate debated the federal marriage amendment; Saddam Hussein was caught crouching in a hole in the ground; Ricin and anthrax attacked our mail service; once communist countries held democratic elections; Pope John Paul II breathed his last; and a new pope was named.

One can argue that your most formative years are those before eighteen. Yes, the basis for my assumptions was shaped at an early age, but where my reasoning leads me after that has been drastically influenced by the last four years of my life. Having lived during the passing of so many great people, you learn the great influence they had on this world...and the indelible mark they left on people, culture, and politics. You are able to examine not only their positive influence, but their faults as well. These are things that textbooks cannot teach you.