For many Illinois students, November will mark the first time they cast a ballot in a presidential election. In just a few days, students will be lined up outside the Ike or the YMCA to pull a lever that will determine the course of our nation—no pressure for you first-time voters!

As a recent Illinois grad and current middle school math teacher in South Carolina, I’ve spent time thinking about this election and how it will be retold in my students’ history books. Fifty years from now, we will look back on this time—the division, the racism, the inequity—and we will tell our children, and our children’s children, that we lived it.

What we say to them next is up to us. That is why I decided to become a teacher.

As a senior in accounting at Illinois, I debated between a career in business, international service, or non-profit leadership. After reading Wendy Kopp’s “One Day, All Children,” I was convinced that my starting line was in the classroom. I realized that if I was going to be part of shaping our nation’s future, I first needed to understand inequity up close. With my first few months of teaching under my belt, I can absolutely say this is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done. But right now, I know that I am right where I need to be: leading 53 of the most brilliant, tough, and determined students.

Now that I’m a teacher, I realize that the future of our country lies squarely in my classroom. Every day that I teach, I grow more convicted of my students’ boundless potential and am eager for the day when they’re charting the path of our country.  I think of one of my students, who told me during our first week of school that he wants to be a doctor when he’s older. About a month later, while we were chatting, he started talking about being a software engineer. When I asked him which career it was going to be, he casually responded, “Well, I want to be a software engineer actually. Doctor is my back up.” It’s these moments that turn my previous hope into my current conviction.

I believe there will be a day when my students are the ones running for president. I know there will be a day when the Time 100 list includes Samara, Dennis and Erika. But we have to be part of the generation making that possible.

This November, we must ensure our country’s moral arc continues bending towards justice for all. We can do that by showing our students real-world examples of leaders who look and sound like them. Secondly, we must empower our children to become the next generation of leaders. We cannot forget that the election is not the only way to influence our nation’s future – what we choose to do with our time, talent and treasure as productive members of society in our post-graduation plans influences it just as much, if not more so.

So when we think about how this time will go down in history, we have two choices: We can tell the next generation that we lived it, and we couldn’t find the answers. That we didn’t have the courage to disrupt the systems and structures that sustain inequality and injustice. That we lived it, and we didn’t take up the challenge.

Or we can tell them that we lived it, and we changed it.

As you head into your polling place, and more importantly, as you consider how you’ll make your impact after graduation, I ask you to think beyond yourself. Don’t just be a leader. Let’s create the next generation of leaders.

Kristen Cantieri is a 2016 graduate and current Teach For America-South Carolina corps member.