Four years ago, we had a presidential election. Four years ago, I was still in middle school. And I could not have cared less who our president was. He was just some other authority figure to rebel against, and besides, I was more worried about holding on to my lunch money than I was pondering the issues.

Fast forward to the here and now. I’m a junior in high school and I, like many of my peers, became involved in volunteering for my favored presidential candidate. I participated in as much as I could to ensure the victory of my candidate, whether it was phone banking, going door-to-door or attending rallies. I never thought I’d be doing these things when I was a seventh-grader.

And everything I’ve done this month and the months prior, I know that I will never forget. It was certainly a memorable November.

I remember walking into the Republican Victory Center, accompanied by my fellow Republican friends, wondering if anything I did would affect anyone in the long run.

We were quickly trained in the operation of the phones and drilled with the questions we were supposed to ask and how we were supposed to ask them. I remember sitting there, so nervous I had trouble breathing, just staring at the phone. When I finally struck up the courage to dial the first number, I was met by an answering machine.

Released from the tension, via deus ex machine, my anxiety only grew. I dialed three more numbers and reached three more answering machines. By the fifth phone call, I had finally gotten to a real person. And this person (I can’t even remember who) laughed when I asked if he was voting for McCain.

Talk about a disappointment.

But the next person I reached was someone who didn’t really know much about the candidates. Finally, I was able to do something that felt helpful. I let them know where my candidate and his opponent stood on the issues.

Though I reached perhaps dozens of answering machines that day, I will remember that one person. It assures me that I had done something that might affect someone in the long run. I’m glad that I volunteered.

Perhaps 20 years from now, several presidents later (hopefully), I will sit back and remember the November of 2008. It was November when I took a chance and volunteered, trying to do my part for my candidate. It was the November when the contender for the record of first black President of America vied against the contender for the oldest President of America. I will remember when McCain announced, to the world’s surprise, Sarah Palin as his running mate. Now we could throw in the contender for the first woman vice president into the mix too. Certainly, all of these elements made for an exciting election year.

I hope you will remember this election year because it would be sad if you forgot such a memorable year of cutthroat, mudslinging politics between two well-qualified candidates. It will be depressing if this year faded from your memory, because it was a November to remember forever.