"This Election Will Affect Me and My Friends".

• Author: RODDY, CHERISE
• Position: Brief Article

This is the first in a series of columns by teenagers. If you have a personal story to tell, please send it to us. If we publish it, we'll send you $100. Submissions must include your name, address, and phone number, should be limited to 400 words, and cannot be returned. Send your column to Voices, The New York Times Upfront, 555 Broadway, New York, NY 10012-3999, or e-mail it to nytupfront@scholastic.com.

On the third night of the Republican convention last August, I entered the First Union Center in Philadelphia, where everyone had gathered to nominate George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. When I arrived as a reporter for UPFRONT, I felt like I was in the midst of an American History class. All the political activity I had seen and read about for years, I could now see in person. I could feel the spirit of the convention through the huge red, white, and blue balloons, the signs supporting Cheney and Bush, the sound of thousands of noisemakers. It felt like I was at a patriotic party for the Republicans and America.

Then something happened that I had never expected: I suddenly realized that I was interested in all this. Not interested in becoming a politician, but interested in knowing what was going on in the world of politics.

This was new to me. When I was in the fourth grade, Bill Clinton and President George Bush were running for...