With Trump's inauguration a few short days ago, I fear America will experience a shift in culture. An abundance of hate has followed this election, and I will not pretend that either party is completely innocent. I am one of the many individuals who believed that Donald Trump would never become the president. Yet here we are. I will never understand why an individual campaigning with such hate and fear became president. I could sit here and write about the false news articles, the "closeted" Trump supporters, but this is not what I plan on discussing today. I want to discuss equal rights. I want to discuss kindness. Although I do not agree with almost anything Trump stands for, I do not hate my friends and family that voted for him or support him. I know that their political preference is not equal to the kind of person they are. We should be kind to each other regardless of political views.

I am completely for standing up for what each person believes in, but I do not think that people deserve to be attacked by our beliefs simply for believing them. I know the world is crazy right now. I know that I have friends who fear for their safety under Trump's presidency. I fear for our future as a country, and I believe that this fear is valid. We need to remember to be there for each other. To support one another in difficult situations. Life has enough darkness, let's lighten it with caring for one another.

After seeing plenty of posts from Pantsuit Nation, a left-wing positive group on Facebook post stories and pictures from the Women’s March, I became ecstatic with the amount of love surrounding my newsfeed. All across the world, women marched together for their rights. A president who is known to have a lack for consent, as well as women as a whole deserves to face opposition. Donald Trump may be the president, but that does not mean we have to adopt his ideas or support his views. Women deserve equal pay, equal treatment, and free choice when it comes to their bodies as a whole. Many of those of us living in the United States today descended from immigrants, and this is important to remember while we are trying to push people away and build stronger walls to keep people out. We deserve a world of kindness. We deserve a world where everyone is created equally. It should not matter if you do not understand someone’s gender identity, sexual orientation, or even the color of their skin. Every single person has value.

Let’s be kind to one another, and be kind to ourselves.