With the results of this recent election, more hate has come from it than acceptance. More people choose to describe their anger as opposed to look back on how proud a certain candidate might have made them feel. For me, I don’t want to ignore the progress Hillary Clinton made on so many levels. So, much like I did with Donald Trump, I wanted to write a letter expressing my gratitude towards Hillary Clinton.

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

Thank you for all that you have done. As a teenage girl, this will be one of the first elections I remember as I get older. Knowing that I would not be able to vote in this election, as I would be turning 18 just six days after the election actually happens, I still felt responsible for staying educated throughout this campaign cycle.

The more I learned about you, Mrs. Clinton, the more I felt an enormous feeling of respect for you. This feeling of respect grew when I learned about your work with disabled children and racial justice. You planted a warmth inside of me that so clearly represented my excitement and hope for what was to come. I assumed that you would win this election with ease, I never thought anyone could be more qualified for this position than you. Sure, you made your mistakes, but everyone does, and I do not believe your mistakes were any greater than that of an average politician.

I choose to believe that the quality of someone’s character works on a sliding scale that is based on overall actions (both bad and good) as opposed to actually being at fault for a few big mistakes. In my eyes, your work in the past greatly outweighs the errors you may have been a part of; you showed time and time again how much you cared about every kind of person. It was clear to me that you wanted equality, something I so desperately believe the success of our country depends on. Like so many people in today’s society, I would say one of, if not the largest part of my identity is based on my gender. Because of this, in recent years, I’ve been familiarizing myself with feminism and the concept of “the glass ceiling.” Your nomination alone cracked the ceiling so aggressively that the very thought of you winning our presidency ignited a flame within me that burned brighter than anything else had in quite a long time.

However, on November 8th, as I sat watching the map of our country turn a shocking shade of red with my parents, I began to feel that flame extinguishing. I went to bed early that night, feeling too betrayed and defeated to actually watch the choice the United States had made. The next day I went to school and had no words, which for me, is a rare occurrence. In my first class of the day, a small AP class with an unconventional but respectable teacher, I noticed that my own spirit was not the only one that had been so clearly deflated by the election results.

Our teacher decided to livestream the concession speech. We shut off the lights and as your hopeful face appeared, adorned in a purple trimmed pantsuit, showing a sign of unity. I was immediately brought to silent tears upon your first words, and the tears only shifted to a constant stream down my face when you proved with grace and hope that this will all turn out alright. When you address young people and especially when you addressed the young girls watching during your speech, I felt the flame that I thought had been blown out grow to shine brightly again.

While the feeling of despair was initially so great because of this loss, you are the one who was able to comfort me the most. You lit my flame to begin with. You were so incredibly right when you spoke about how this campaign was so much more than one person or one election, and how it was really about a movement. This movement will continue on far past this election, this presidency, and I believe past our lifetimes. Even though you couldn’t be our Commander-in-Chief for the next four years, you became something so much greater than that.

And for that, Mrs. Clinton, I could not be more grateful.