The most important presidential election in 80 years is coming up and my research shows a dearth of college students will be going to the polls, although their futures depend on the outcome.

Four years ago, the young people of this country were enthralled with our current president, attending rallies and anointing him as “the next JFK.”

Now they are disenchanted and have discovered that their future right now isn’t so rosy.

Graduating and living with your parents isn’t really all that it’s cracked up to be and student loans are hard to pay on when you don’t have a decent job, or a job at all.

From what I’ve learned in my conversations with SMU students at the Barley House, there will be more kids going through Greek recruitment than there will be at the polls in less than six weeks.

That’s shameful, given men and women, far greater and more courageous than you and I, have sacrificed their time, their families and even their lives so that we could enjoy the most basic of American freedoms – the freedom of choice.

To tell the truth, I am not overjoyed with the presidential options, either. I’d always thought of myself as “middle class” until one of the candidates defined that as “making $250,000 a year.”

Now, I’m just low-end and depressed. The current president has been somewhat restrained in his first four years, making sure he doesn’t do anything in order to jeopardize his winning a second term.

It’s in the second term that a president really turns up the heat to implement policies. A lot of people fear President Barack Obama’s policies, but aren’t clear on just what Mitt Romney and the Republicans have in mind for fixing this great nation. All I’ve really seen are the two candidates spending a lot of time throwing barbs at one another but not really outlining a plan.

If you don’t vote for someone in this election, then don’t you dare complain about your problems if the new administration doesn’t work for you. If you don’t vote, don’t make eyes with the service men or women who put themselves in harm’s way in order to provide the very blanket of freedom that you sleep under each night.

If you don’t vote, don’t look up at the flagpole whenever you pass it. The symbol of this still-great nation doesn’t apply to you if you aren’t willing to do the one basic thing that stands for and you aren’t willing to perpetuate the process.

Of course, you have the right not to vote, too. Exercise that right and see the impending malaise. Apathy never got anyone anything.

If you think your one vote “won’t make any difference,” think again. For a rare time in history, the outcome of a future so important will be determined by just a handful of votes. Abstain, and you can make a difference, too.

There are 564 people who control your destiny in this country, every day. However, there is but one day, in November, every four years, when you, as a single voice, can override those 564 lawmakers and so-called “leaders” in an attempt to better your future. Get out of bed on that day and VOTE, dammit.

Larson is an SMU alumnus from the class of ’82.