At over 300 million people and three million square miles of land, our country is one of the largest in the world.

For that reason, our country is also one of the most socially, politically and economically diverse nations in the entire world. With the vast diversity throughout our nation, it’s rare to find the amount of unity brought about every four years on Election Day.

Pardon me for using an extremely-overused example, but on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the United States.

It hit pretty close to home, and I knew many who were personally affected. Before that momentous day, I was never a strong patriot. I was always proud of the nation I was born and raised in, but I never truly considered myself to be a real patriot.

That being said, witnessing the country’s unity and strength post-9/11 was the first time I was truly and deeply proud to be an American.

Within a few days of the tragedy, all of the country was adorned in American flags in an effort to express support for the victims of the tragedy and to show the world that we, as a country, as vast and diverse as we are, will stand by our country and each other through thick and thin. Moments like that rarely happen in modern society where everyone is innately self-focused.

The only other time, every four years (at least), that I’ve witnessed this nation unite in the interest of the greater whole is on Election Day.

In 2008, about 196 million Americans voted. Just under 200 million people went out and expressed their opinions in the interest of the greater good and participated in the betterment of their country.

One of the defining aspects of a country’s stability is its ability to have a peaceful transfer of power. It’s what defined America’s legitimacy in 1800, and it’s what continues to demonstrate our stability and power despite every blunder, conflict and tragedy that we experience.

I’m the first one to acknowledge that America is not what it used to be in the context of international monetary, military and social power, but I’m also a huge believer that America can still be that great power again.

Our time as a global power is not yet over. Each and every election year, America shows the world that no matter what gets thrown our way, we are a people who will, once every four years, put our stereotypically personal, self-centered lives aside to exercise our right as citizens of the United States of America and express our opinion on how the better the country we live in.

For all the stereotypes we fit and all the times we screw up, I truly believe America will be a strong nation as long as every four years its citizens show that they are proud, participatory members of this nation, and they want to make the United States a better place.

It doesn’t matter how they want to go about it (who they vote for). What matters is that they vote, that they show the world that we aren’t just a bunch of land – we’re also 300 million people unified in the cause that is America.

Alexandra Studwell is a College freshman from New York, NY.

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The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.

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