
If my politics at age 18 were what they are today, I’d feel a moral duty to run for a seat at a local level, such as city council, and build from there. I have enough in my history that can be used against me to embarrass a campaign that I wouldn’t bother. If I knew that’s where I was headed at the outset, that’d be different.
I think you should have separate boot drives. I see people talking about Windows trashing Linux partitions occasionally. This would help prevent such from happening. Good luck!