By this time next year, we will finally know which Democrat and which Republican will compete head-to-head for the office of President of the United States.

That’s right — in 12 months, we will know who both parties nominate for the highest office in the land.

Twelve long months.

The Republican National Convention is set for July 18-21 next year in Cleveland, and the Democratic National Convention will be held days later in Philadelphia.

After 12 months of battles to determine the final candidates, we’ll have another 90 days of political posturing and rhetoric following the conventions.

As I wrote in a column a few months back, I am an avid follower of all things political, but I’ve already grown tired of the 2016 Presidential election.

The unending election cycle has officially worn me out.

It seemed like it was only mere moments after President Barack Obama won his second term in 2012 that the national media turned their eyes to 2016.

Can anyone bounce Hillary Clinton from the top of the Democratic ticket?

Can Jeb Bush become the third member of his family to represent the GOP in the race? Can he win it all?

Will it be Clinton versus Bush in the ultimate case of political Déjà vu?

What will Donald Trump say today?

Pardon me while I hit the snooze button.

Don’t get me wrong; I will be thrilled when the primaries, the debates and the general election are here and can be dissected— but, not just yet.

I hadn’t been thinking about the 2016 election much lately, outside of watching the list of GOP candidates expand beyond comprehension, until a phone call with an old college friend last week.

Joe and I hold completely different political beliefs, but we have remained the best of friends since working together at the campus paper in Muncie, Indiana nearly seven years ago.

We catch up once every few weeks, and without fail our conversations turn to two subjects — baseball and politics.

During our most recent phone call, we talked about baseball’s All-Star Game as well as the 2016 election — until both of us admitted after about 30 seconds that we had grown tired of the early election talk.

Even though he has worked for one party, and I drink coffee from a mug touting another, we agreed this was just too early for all the hype surrounding the election.

I know that a few months down the road I will consume every tidbit of news related to the election — I’m just not there yet.

Jay Sowers is photo editor of Gulf Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at jay@gulfcoastmedia.com.