Politics..you either love them or you hate you them.
When I was in middle school, I despised politics. I thought it was all stupid and irrelevant as I worried about boys I liked and who should be in my “Top Friends” on MySpace. I remember thinking in sixth grade that I didn’t care about social issues or even economic issues. I was too young to really form an opinion or pay attention.
I grew up in a Republican household. However, my parents never talked politics in front of me and if they did, I don’t remember but that is probably because I tuned them out due to lack of caring. I knew where my grandfather stood because I would go into his living room as a middle schooler and watch Bill O’Reilly with him and my own dad when we went to visit (which was thankfully only a 5-10 minute drive from home so it was almost every other night). I thought it was boring at first but I didn’t have a cell phone so I was forced to listen and pay attention. Before I knew it, I was looking forward to watching “The O’Reilly Factor” and discussing it with them in between commercial breaks (this usually meant I was asking questions because I didn’t understand what was going on).
I entered high school somewhat politically aware but not enough to talk about it. You wouldn’t have caught me talking politics then, you probably would’ve caught me talking sports or about the latest high school drama. It wasn’t until my senior year at good old Apex High School that I took AP Government. During this class, we had a mock Senate in which we had to pick a party or remain independent. I naturally went to the Republican side because I knew which way I leaned, I just wasn’t sure why. So I attribute my discovery of my views to this class. I researched topics and looked at both sides. I spoke up in class and developed arguments that I maybe wouldn’t have before. This is where I learned that I was, in fact, a conservative.
There was one specific incident that I will never forget. A girl in our class who was on the Democrat side of aisle came up to present her bill on stopping animal testing. Us Republicans were whispering back and forth with snippy remarks before I finally got recognized for a question. I simply asked “Then how will we know if rat poison works?” and with that, the bill failed. Whoever said being sassy wouldn’t get me anywhere in life clearly never got to delve into politics.
I graduated and moved on to college where I attended my freshmen year at Marshall University (Go Herd!). I was occasionally tweeting at that time but I found a girl on Twitter who was part of the College Republicans. I asked to go to a meeting and felt immediately welcome and within two of weeks of being a member, I got to attend a YAF (Young Americans for Freedom) conference in Columbus, Ohio where I got to see Stephen F. Hayes, Rick Santorum, Bay Buchanan, Liz Cheney, and many others.
This was the Marshall University College Republicans with Bay Buchanan.
After that conference, I went back to Huntington with a gleam in my eye and a pep in my step. I decided to begin campaigning for Mitt Romney. I got up one Saturday morning and drove to the Cabell County GOP headquarters and began phone banking. Then the next Saturday I went door knocking and then went again a Saturday after that.
This is David Bender, a fellow College Republican, who I had the pleasure of door knocking with around Huntington.
We all know how that election ended but I am very happy to say that Cabell County went red; in fact, all 55 counties in West Virginia went red that year (We owe Obama for that because of his anti-coal comments but we’ll take credit too because door knocking isn’t the bucket of sunshine we make it to be).
This was where I had my first experiences with campaigns and the efforts of the people. The night Obama won re-election, many of my friends cried because they had worked so hard only to watch this nation re-elect the mistake we had voted in 4 years prior. But I didn’t cry, I smiled; I smiled because this would soon spark outrage amongst the country when they would see what another four years would look like. I remember looking at my friends saying “Think about this! Young people will not like what is happening to this country in another four years, that’s our chance to show them what the principles of freedom look like!” I was energized and ready for 2016.
I transferred schools after my freshman year. Not because I didn’t like Marshall, I loved it and all the people I got to know because of it but I transferred because I didn’t feel like I belonged. And in the spring of 2014, I began attending East Carolina University (Go Pirates!). I fell in love with the atmosphere and luckily fell into a group of friends that I’m incredibly lucky to have. I was all over the place and would attend College Republican meetings here or there.
Twitter was my place. That is where I felt free to express my views. But Twitter has its pros and cons. The cons were, and still are, that people will attack you viciously because you disagree. I had people wishing death upon my future children, I had people wishing death upon me, calling me ugly, and any other less than intelligent thing that any troll would say behind a screen but never to your face.
But with Twitter, there are so many more pros. I found people from all over the country who agreed with me or felt the same way I did. I began to develop my arguments in such a way that it became easy to convey my message in less than 140 characters. I had finally found my voice (this is not to say I wasn’t vocal in my own life, but for whatever reason people seemed to pay more attention online..silly millennial’s).
One Twitter account that I had followed for a long time was “Future First Lady” and I was hooked. I found myself retweeting their content and eventually applied to be in the cabinet. On May 5th, 2015, I had been selected to be a cabinet member for FFL. I was welcomed by the FFL family with open arms and excitement. During the summer, FFL had a name change to Future Female Leader (Read more here: The Next Chapter for FFL) and things seemed to skyrocket. FFL now has over 50 cabinet members and contributors combined and we are happy to announce that we will be at CPAC.
These are some of my lovely fellow FFL family members. From left to right: Me, Robin Karns, Danielle Butcher, Alexa Archambault, and Corinne Crawford.
And during my first semester of my senior year at ECU, I started a Turning Point USA chapter. This was the greatest decision I have made during my time in school. Turning Point USA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes free market capitalism, limited government, and fiscal responsibility. We had more than 250+ people sign up because of the majestic tabling of Ashton Billingsley and Alycia Hester who just showed me the ropes but led the charge. We had our first meeting and we now have our first executive board. TPUSA has so many amazing opportunities. I got to meet so many like minded young ladies at their Young Women’s Leadership Summit and their Winter in West Palm Beach Activist Retreat.
Seen above are all the attendees at the Winter in West Palm Beach Activist Retreat
Getting involved in politics is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. For one thing, I actually know whats going on not only within in our government but I know what’s going on around the world. I pay attention to current events. But another thing I have found is that by being vocal myself, many people seem to speak up with me. I’ve learned in life that you can’t wait for someone else to say what you want to say because they might be too scared to say it as well. But like on Twitter, and in my life in general, I’m honest. I don’t let the left bully me into submission simply because they disagree with what I have to say.
I recently went to a Marco Rubio rally and saw so many of my friends but something happened that has only happened to me a few times. A young girl, high school age, approached me and said “Are you Caroline Craig?” I said yes and she said “I follow you on Twitter and I just wanted to thank you for standing up for your beliefs. They have helped me.” This young girl’s name was Mary Schneider and I got to talk to her, as well as her mom, and thank her for standing up for her prinicples and beliefs. She was incredibly sweet and I couldn’t stop thinking that I had that much impact on someone. I got home that night and checked my phone to find that she had tweeted this:
This was so flattering and made me realize that my voice is more important than I thought. I realized that people are watching me and care what I have to say. I don’t want to “inspire” someone because I’m really not an inspiration and haven’t done anything to be deserving of that high praise but I do want to help young girls find their voices. I want to help younger people feel like they can stand up for what they believe in even when it seems like society is against them and that many of their own peers are against them. If I can help a single girl who follows me on Twitter, then I feel like I’ve accomplished something that I never thought I would. I want to change the world, maybe not in a drastic way; I just want young women to not feel like they must adhere to a certain set of beliefs simply because society tells them they must.
Its officially 2016, lets take the White House back.
rightofnormal 