This I believe: Power of Politics

   When I was a 5-year-old kindergartner, my daily life had a certain repetitive pattern. I went to kindergarten in the morning, came back home after lunch, and played with friends until evening. Without some special cases, I came home before 6:30 p.m. at all costs and turned up the TV to watch my favorite animation show, 'SpongeBob SquarePants' (definitely the best animation in my entire life). When the show was nearly over, my father got off work and came back home. Then I started helping my mother preparing for dinner. When we finished preparing dinner and sat together, it was almost always 8 o’ clock. My job at that moment was to turn the channel to 8 o’ clock news channel. Even when I was 5 years old, watching news while having dinner was one part of my family’s daily routine.

  There were plenty of unfamiliar words on the news. Even though I could not understand most of them, I soon became interested in the news since I watched every day. I asked the meaning of unfamiliar words and the name of people appeared in the news to my parents. Every information was totally new for me, who had not yet formed any viewpoint toward society. Among various information in the news, there was one category of news that grabbed my attention because many news programs give major coverage: Politics. I soon got to know the name of presidents in leading countries, major party leaders of Korea, and electoral system. This was my first encounter with politics.

  Since then, my interests in politics developed greatly. While I could not watch entire evening news as in the past, I kept my interests in politics by reading news on the Internet. However, throughout my life, there was no real opportunity to participate in politics actively. As a teenager who does not have voting rights, my position always stayed as an observer. Thus, I always felt a great thirst for political activity. While some nations like Germany have a highly-developed political society that teenager students can engage in, the civil society of Korea is not well-organized, especially for students.

  I thought that all I can do is to wait until I become an adult and get a voting right. However, when I entered high school, I soon realized that there is some way to quench my thirst: a student council, composed of three branches, which was working for students. When senior executives of student council explained freshmen about the system of the student council, I could immediately realize that the student council do make meaningful changes for students’ lives. Among three branches, I was dragged to the legislature since it has the widest range of power to make a practical change in students’ school lives.

  For the first time in my life, I ran the election for legislative council. I gathered election campaigners, build up my pledges, and appealed to students for their support. I also had to prepare for the presidential debate and think about powerful messages to convey. Running an election was very special to me since I had watched the process on TV for several years. I could understand the hardships of election which were unseen by watching it. I first understood that gaining the trust of people is a hard task.

  Fortunately, I was elected and was granted an opportunity to serve my term. I first felt that gaining support from others is such a wonderful event. With the wide support from students, I could successfully serve out my term. Even though there were some unexpected difficulties during the term, I did all my best to communicate with students and reflect their opinions on school rules. Inspired by the Congress system, I held special committees to debate about diverse aspects of students’ school lives. I could complete the amendment of school rules before my term ends.

  With the memorable experience of the student council, my belief in politics grew stronger. Even though inefficiency and corruption often make people disappointed, it is only the political system that can improve every person’s life. It is true that ideal in politics is rarely achieved, but I believe that this ideal brings our society into a better place. I believe in meaningful changes in our society created by politics. Thus, I still believe the power of politics. This, I believe.