Today, I considered dropping out of school to protest Donald Trump.

I have seen the executive orders of shutting down our borders and denying refugees access to our country, and I felt helpless. I felt useless in this world against powers of hate. I found myself in class thinking that it was all so trivial. Here was our country, on the verge of becoming something horrible, and I was learning about iambic pentameter. I am terrified, but the only thing stronger than my fear is my anger.

Since the election results, my world keeps constantly crashing around my ears. Time and time again, I am petrified with fear of the future. All because one man decided that Muslim people and Mexican people were less than human. My blood freezes in fear and boils in anger every time I see his name, and he is the President of the United States.

Around me, there is less action, less conversation. No one wishes to have a dialogue about what our country is turning into. But, social media constantly tells me more, shows me more horrors and less solutions day after wretched day. I was so drained from the constant bombardments of terror that I avoided Facebook for an entire week. I'm on the verge of tears every time I see an article now. I feel helpless and hopeless.

Our world is burning, and there seems to be nothing I can do. I wear my pride buttons while my BLM and Pro-Choice pins are coming in the mail. I wear my safety pin openly, and every day I put on my buttons and wonder if someone will talk to me. I hope someone does. I am sick of the silence.

We are a country of freedom, and yet we are limiting access to our freedoms from immigrant and refugees who need our help. We are a country of freedom and yet we limit access to basic health care based on the outdated belief that women are lesser beings. We are a country of freedom, but we have systematic oppression against people who are not white. We are burning from the inside out.

I will not drop out of school to fight against these terrible atrocities against this country. I can fight from here, and it may not matter in the end, but at least I can say that I tried. We are burning, but we are not yet ash, and there is still time to put out the flame.

So put it out. Fight if you want to fight, march if you want to march, speak if you want to speak. But, do not stay silent. Silence will kill us.

I stand with Black Lives Matter. I stand with Immigrants. I stand with Refugees. I stand with women. I stand with LGBTQ+ people. I stand with Muslim people. I stand with anyone who is oppressed by this country. Stay safe, my friends, but do not stay silent.