“The Future Is Female,” reads a poster that junior Elana Tobb proudly displays in one of her Instagram photos. Her most recent retweets, between normal teenage ramblings on music and fashion, critique on President Trump’s cabinet picks and condemn police brutality. With the growing polarization of American political sentiments nationwide, it is unsurprising that many disagree with Tobb’s outspoken opinions. What is so surprising, however, is that many of these critics are actually some of Tobb’s closest friends.

In the last 20 years, the percentage of ‘moderate’ voters has split in half, Pew Research finds. Increasingly contentious topics have driven these former middlemen to more consistently blue or red views. This obvious divide usually causes many people to worry if any sort of common ground between liberals and conservatives can ever be reached in the future, but today’s youth have helped to challenge these multiple concerns.

“I tend to share the same beliefs with a majority of my friends, but I have a couple close friends with differing opinions, mainly regarding social issues. As long as what they say makes sense and is supported by actual facts, there is no problem,” explained Tobb.

While she consistently finds it very upsetting when someone that she cares about targets a specific group of people based on something that they simply have no way of controlling, she generally tends to nd solace in an honest discussion with them, which can eventually bring them closer together in the end, despite their different opinions. “People shouldn’t be afraid of sharing their consul icting views. It helps everyone see both sides of an issue and try to get on the same page,” said Tobb.

On the opposite side of the aisle, current junior Mac Mckee tends to have some difficulty seeing eye-to-eye with most of Tobb’s political claims, but ultimately agrees with her support of togetherness. “A lot of my political, religious, and social beliefs differ from my friends, but it doesn’t really matter to me. I like to judge people on how good of a person they are, not who they voted for,” said Mckee, an active member of Sherwood’s Young Republicans Club. Some of Mckee’s friends attended the exact same Women’s March that Tobb had posted about on her Instagram. Some of Tobb’s acquaintances cheered when Mckee called for stronger support for law enforcement at an October Sherwood Debate.

On top of many strictly political issues, some students tend to find it quite challenging to relate to their peers on multiple moral dilemmas. While the culture of partying and taking risks is definitely a given part of coming-of- age for some teenagers, others who prefer staying in on Friday nights can sometimes struggle to understand their peers, and vice-versa.

“My friends can act pretty wild sometimes. I’ve been Muslim my whole life, so I’m not really into doing all the stuff they’re into for religious reasons. But we still get along really well,” said junior Alhaji Turay. “All in all, we are all humans. Democrat, Republican, Christian, Islam, we shouldn’t let ideas or af liations come between that.”