Walking Down Memory Lane, Edwards Tells Students to Vote

ABC News’ Raelyn Johnson Reports: Former Sen. John Edwards took a walk down memory lane today as he sought to encourage high school students to participate in what everyone expects will be a memorable election in 2008.

With his parents Wallace and Bobbie Edwards in tow Edwards stopped by his childhood home, a pink two room house located in the mill town of Seneca, South Carolina before heading to nearby Walhalla High School, where Wallace Edwards graduated from in 1950.

There nearly 1,000 high school students throughout the Oconee School District, who will be 18 by November 4, 2008 registered to vote. After registering Edwards encouraged them to abandon any cynicism and apathy and vote.

The event was hosted by Generation Next Votes 2008 and featured performances by SAGE – Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship. Asked if he had the opportunity to send a text message or email every student in America what would he write, Edwards responded, "You’re country needs your idealism, you’re principle and your passion. You’re voice must be heard, vote."

But it was as much about political messages as it was personal ones. "For anyone who says to you that there’s a limit to what you can do, that there’s a limit to what you can achieve in your life—every stage of my life has been a surprise," said Edwards.

"I never thought I’d be able to go to college when I was little. When I finally got to college I assumed that every body there would be smarter than me—maybe I was right, but when I go there I learned that if you’re willing to work hard enough you can compete with anybody."

Citing his education as the reason he had so many opportunities in life, Edwards talked his College For Everyone program—where if students agree to work a minimum of 10 hours a week while in school, the government will pay for their tuition and books and a state or community college.

Edwards told students he thought going to law school was a farfetched idea, but his mother told reporters it was a life long dream. "When he was about 12 he wrote a paper in school—’Why I wanted to be a lawyer’ and I still have that."