Throughout this entire election I have spent my days fighting for not only Hillary Clinton, but an ideal United States. By ideal I mean not run by President Donald Trump. Much of my fight has been through the use of many social media outlets, primarily Facebook. And here is what I have learned through my use of Facebook and connecting with primarily those from my home town:

I am “misguided.”

I am “too young to understand politics.”

I am “young and that is why you are a liberal, you will learn as you grow older.”

I am “just a dumb girl who thinks she knows everything because she is in college.”

I am “not hardworking” because I am liberal.

I am “attending a school that is teaching me to be liberal.”

I am “ignorant.”

I could go on and on for at least three pages and include all of the degrading things I was called as I continued my fight for not just Hillary Clinton, but equality in the United States. I am young, yes. However, I am 19, I am not 12. This means I am old enough to drive, enlist in the military, attend college and most importantly, I am old enough to vote. However, this does not stop the many people who continued to demean me and remind me that I am too young to understand. I am too young to understand politics, the exact thing I am learning about at the four-year institution I have attended for two years. I — a woman attending a four-year institution and already in $40,000 in debt all by myself, because you all insist I pay for my own tuition with no assistance — apparently am not learning anything. It is almost as if the $40,000 is invaluable I —a woman who is 19, majoring in political science, the President of the Democrat club, and planning on attending law school — is too young and naïve to understand politics. I am “misguided” despite growing up with a conservative father who continues to disagree with me on politics to this day. Meanwhile, those who are degrading me are primarily men, who did not attend any form of schooling following high school. I am an educated college woman who is being told by men who have no extra schooling that I do not understand. I am expected to respect and believe that you are all more educated than I because of your age and simply because of that.

Now I have seen first-hand that those who are the same age as me and are conservative do not receive the same degrading comments I received throughout this election. This is simply because you believe liberals/democrats are uneducated. You believe conservatives are the educated. However, you are conservative and you have yet to receive any extended form of education following high school? This, is because, and statistically speaking, this isn’t just me being a young ignorant liberal, those who have higher education lean more left than any other American. Further, these numbers DOUBLE when one moves on to graduate education. This means, not only are college students leaning towards the left but people who are even more educated tend to have liberal views. Huh, look at that.

I will continue to fight for what is right despite those of you who tell me I am not enough. For those of you who tell me I am too young, I will continue to show you as I grow older. I will not allow your ad-hominem tactics to tear me down and degrade the person I have become.