Turning 18 and becoming a legal adult opens new doors of opportunities. You have no legal curfew (driving or otherwise), you can buy as many lottery tickets as your allowance permits and you can permanently ink your skin. Those are the most commons luxuries an 18-year-old looks forward to.

This is probably due to several reasons, the biggest perhaps being that the “most important” election only happens every four years: the presidential election. 2016 is one of those years. But in years when a presidential election doesn’t occur, there are still important elections of officials. For example, senators are elected every six years, and representatives who serve in the House of Representatives are elected every two years. Arguably, almost every year there is someone or something “important” to vote for.

Another aspect of voting that many teenagers forget is the one that might affect them the most. When you go to vote on Nov. 8, you’re not just electing the officials who go off to Washington. You’re also electing local representatives. These representatives include judges, county commissioners and aldermen.

Reaching the legal voting age also fails to excite because with so many candidates, it’s difficult to stay educated on who is running and what (s)he stands for.

One United States History class doesn’t cut it.

So how do these newly-turned 18-year-olds educate themselves? There are loads of different resources available on the internet. While we don’t suggest that you trust everything the politicians say, it might be useful to look at the candidates’ websites–just to get acquainted.

A more amusing source of learning is a quiz on isidewith.com. Similar to a typical Buzzfeed quiz, the quiz asks a series of questions of different national issues, including gay marriage, abortion rights and immigration policies. Once the quiz has been taken, it calculates the percentage of views you share with the 2016 presidential candidates. The higher the percentage, the more your views match. It practically makes the decision for you.

A more time-consuming option is to watch the nightly news, or tune into the next Democratic or Republican debate. If you can’t sit on your couch for over an hour listening to people you don’t personally know argue over topics you don’t entirely understand, then pick your favorite news outlet and watch a recap. A useful website is theSkimm.com. It can tell you all the latest political news in simple language littered with pop culture references. All of these resources are easily accessible, so there should be no excuse for remaining uninformed.

Finally, some teenagers decide not to vote is because it’s “too much of a hassle” to register to vote or physically go to the polls in November. With all the technological advances we’ve made, this seems like a lazy excuse. New Trier offers eligible students the opportunity to register to vote during advisery! Even if you miss those days, it’s as simple as googling “register to vote in Illinois” and clicking on the website that ends with “.gov.”

According to the Illinois Online Voter Application, there are only five requirements to vote that most New Trier students meet without lifting a finger. These are: being a citizen of the United States, being 17-years-old on or before the date of the Primary Election and turning 18 on or before the date of the General Election (November 8), living in your election precinct at least 30 days prior to Election Day, carrying no prior convictions or jail sentences, and not claim the right to vote anywhere else. Those five simple requirements allow you to have a say in the United States government.

In order to apply to register to vote, you need an Illinois Driver’s License number or your Illinois State ID number, the date the License or ID was issued, the last four digits of your Social Security number, and your birth date. While you might have to ask your parents for the last four digits of your social security number and pull out your license from your wallet, that’s it. Once you have all that information, login to the official Illinois Online Voter Registration Application website and enter it in. It’s that simple.

Even if you aren’t old enough to register to vote, it is never too early to educate yourself. Those who are old enough to vote, it’s your time to make a difference and become part of history. No more excuses. Educate yourself about the candidates, local and national, and be registered for the Presidential Primary on March 15.