I really try to stay out of politics, I do. But this year is just a different story all together. You’ve got Donald Trump, literally the only Republican nominee (since the others dropped on pretty much the same day ... not sketchy at all), who offends everyone and everything just by opening his mouth. You’ve got the first woman running as president and not as vice-president, with an interesting past, to be putting it lightly. And then a man who is considered so “radical and socialist” that media feels the need to let everyone know that he’s “out of the race."

Rutgers held a Bernie Sanders rally on Sunday, May 8, right smack in the middle of finals and it happened to be Mother’s Day. And to be honest, no one cared about either of those things because thousands of people filed into the Rutgers Athletic Center that afternoon and waited literal hours to see him. As one of my friends quoted, “Moms are forever, but Bernie is right now.” I went with a few girls from my building and we made a day out of it. We got in line around 1 p.m. and by that point, it was wrapped around behind some of the buildings in the plaza. I was thinking we were never getting in. After some interesting conversations with the people around us, nearly blowing away with the strong winds and some Starbucks, we made it inside.

We were actually able to get onto the floor instead of in the stadium seating which we were really surprised about, but weren’t about to start asking questions. Throughout our time in line, we had heard Bernie wasn’t speaking until at least 5 p.m., but we decided to stick it out anyway, and I’m so glad we did. After sitting around talking for maybe a half hour and doing some chanting, including the famous “R!” “U!" chant, we got some speakers that came on to get us all pumped. They basically just explained what the campaign was about and how it differed from the others, told everyone how important it was that we were registered to vote, and that any extra volunteer support in their offices would be helpful and appreciated. We also all got free stickers and signs as well, which we all were so excited to have.

And then, before we knew it, 5:10 p.m. came around and Bernie Sanders came out onto the platform, and it was crazy. The first look at him was so surreal because there’s such a difference from seeing someone on TV, following their social media, even laughing at those dumb memes and then seeing them in person. It was just so cool! Like, Bernie Sanders was really at Rutgers. It didn’t seem real.

He spoke for about an hour, talking about raising the minimum wage, how broken the criminal justice system is, how public colleges and universities need to be free and student loan debt needs to be refinanced (the crowd went wild here!). He continued to speak on how much money Wall Street has compared to everyone else. Did you know that the top 20 richest people in the U.S. have more money than 90 percent of America combined? Yeah, it’s a little staggering. Bernie also made us think; he made us wonder why we can afford to be in Iraq, but have no money for failing school systems? He made us think about why the U.S. has the highest poverty statistic of any major country in the world, even though we’re supposed to be the greatest. He spoke passionately about the Flint water crisis in Michigan, the future of our youth, and how no one who works forty hours a week should be living in poverty. I think my favorite part of it all was how he preached for acceptance toward all races and religions, and the fact that women should have the right to control their own bodies. And that love trumps hate. (See what I did there?)

I left that rally with a tired body, but I was actually really enlightened by all that he said. Nothing about his speech seemed “radical” or “left wing” to me. It seems perfectly reasonable that everyone should be treated as an equal human being, and should have the same rights and access to things that everyone else does. Violence doesn’t need to occur for people to get their points across.

I’m not going to force my political views on you, or tell you who to vote for. You should, however, as an American go out and exercise your right to vote.