300 Word Blog

Conner Cole-Salem – Block 8

Throughout the units in this class, I have been able to connect to a lot of them. In the
recent unit about citizenship, there was a lot that I connected to. To start off, I turn 18 this
October. This means that I will be able to vote. Learning this made me realize that I should
probably start catching up on politics in order to accurately describe my views in the political
world. For example, when I took the test to see what party I was a part of, I got a place
somewhere on the slightly right spectrum. This will help me vote for upcoming candidates.
However, being 18 is not the best age in the world. It is also the age when I have to start filing
my taxes. I already have to pay a portion of my paycheck to taxes. When I turn 18, however, my
parents will most likely make me file my own taxes. Also, just like we were taught in class, my
history teacher was called in for jury duty for a week or two. I remember this being an
interesting time because she told us that she had to be on a jury. This was unfamiliar to me
because I did not really know what that meant. With this class, I was able to learn that it is just
a basic responsibility of a citizen. As a citizen, there are a lot of responsibilities that I was
familiar with, such as the ones listed above; yet, there were some that I did not know until we
were taught. A few of these include selective service, attentiveness to public issues, signing to
armed forces, etc. These are all responsibilities that I did not know I had until we looked into
them in class. For the most part, this unit was really easy for me to connect with because a lot
of the rights and responsibilities I have as a citizen were already introduced to me.