Prior to this most recent election, I never paid much mind to politics. In high school I admit to absolutely neglecting keeping any tabs on current events or history. I would groan as I shuffled towards the 40 minute class that would teach me about the Civil War. Similarly, when I began college in the fall of 2012, I was so frenzied in learning about art (something my high school taught very little of) and reading new books that I found no time to watch the news. I am not making excuses, I fully admit to not following Obama's election for the 2nd term.

The interesting part of privilege it the ability to be completely clueless to the world around you. How easily you can fall into the trap of turning your back to other's suffering. I had become that person: just a typical white girl gallivanting around a new city ignorant to the suffering that occurred just a few streets from the lovely suburban area that my school was built upon.

Privilege. As I write the word I can hear a sea of people moan and roll their eyes. I will never forget a radio host for 98.5 KRZ saying, "Privilege. They (people) just throw that word around as an insult!" I, however, do not see privilege as an insult. Instead, I define privilege as an acknowledgement of things that life has handed me just because I was born.

Am I white? Yes. Therefore, I instantly have more privilege than other races. By this I mean, I am more likely to be considered for a job, people won't unnecessarily cross the street when they see me coming, etc. Could I be considered Christian (in other words: to I look 'normal' to Western society?) Again, yes. I would not be singled out and bullied because of my presumed religion. Was I born into a middle-class family? Yupp. I am so incredibly lucky to have a roof over my head, meals every night, and the ability to attend college. I did not choose to be white, I did not choose to appear 'normal' to my society, and I did not choose the family I was born into, but here I am.

Because of those God-given attributes, I have the potential for more success in this country than say a young Kurdistan woman who appears Muslim, has brown skin, and came from a poor family. The fact that I instantly have the upper hand in this scenario is privilege. It is exactly everything that is wrong with our culture today.

(Before the extreme right jumps in, no this is not "white guilt". This article is an acknowledgement, a teaching, an attempt to make people stop in listen if even for five minutes.)

As I continued college I read more and more classics such as Toni Morrison, Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, Virgil, Charlotte Brontë, and many others. Although many of their books are considered fiction, they all have historical truths riddled within them. Initially, I thought, "Well, those issues are all in the past." Yet, the more I grew and lived in the real world, the more I realized that these issues were not in the past.

I grew angry, the more I realized how I had been trained to be quiet and complacent. By trained, I mean, I recognized that in my high school classes it was often the boys who were rewarded more as they were rewarded for being outgoing. I saw the jokes at my first college about finding a soulmate while in school-- were they really jokes? I used to hang around a mechanics workshop and was told to stay in the office because I wouldn't be interested in what the men were doing. As a woman I was expected (and still am) to one day settle down and have a baby, as though education for me is a joke or an opportunity to find a Prince Charming. Whenever I say, "I don't want a child", I typically get a laugh and a, "you just haven't lived long enough yet." I'm not rebelliously 16 anymore, I'm defiantly 23 and don't want kids. Why is that such an issue? Is it so impossible to imagine me living a life (happily) childless?

I simmered in silence for two more years. I blushed furiously from embarrassment when I attempted to walk into a Dunkin Donuts and had a man approach me saying, "Hey, baby." His eyes were hungry as he slowly looked me up and down. I walked with eyes looking straight on the pavement ahead of me as a car drove past and said, "Nice ass!" I cried in my bed when I realized that I was being paid $2 less at a former job than a man who did the same job as me, simply because I was a woman, I would later discover. Beyond some of my own experiences, I also began listening to the world:

I felt the communal anger of the nation as Brock Turner was released three months early out of a six month sentence for raping a woman. I cried when they tried to victim blame the woman Turner raped, as though he decision to drink somehow equaled the likeliness of getting raped. Yet, Turner's equal decision to get drunk didn't seem to have any consequence to his action of raping a person-- in fact, his drunkenness seemed to save him because he "couldn't make coherent decisions". I've heard it before, I've heard it all before.

I strictly followed the most recent election. I was immediately drawn to Bernie Sanders, not only for his ideas, but for his blunt honesty with the world. I was also immediately disgusted with Trump, his rudeness towards other runners, his smugness. As he grew in the polls, he also seemed to infest the news stations. Every week it was something new: grabbing women by the pussy, Donald Trump Jr. comparing Syrian refugees to a bowl of poisoned skittles, Trump's refusal to release his tax returns, the way he throws tantrums on Twitter. (Can we just remember that he is a 70 year old man and not a rampaging 17 year old) Yes, I cried when Trump was elected and I felt immediate anger over the refugee ban, over the wall he plans to build, over the possibility of the Standing Rock pipeline.

If you are one of those people wondering where all of these awful, annoying liberals came from, I think it's because my generation is starting to listen to the world, like I am. I think it's because we can hear the other sides of the stories thanks to the internet, to the ability to form connections with people from different races, regions, religions. No longer are these just names in a newspaper, they are real lives that we are affecting. Yes, we will speak up, and yes we will be loud.

And if you have a problem with that? Please remember all of the times you have spoken up about anything that meant something to you: Planned Parenthood, gun laws, Kaepernick, Coca-Cola ads, vape shops closing, Starbucks accepting refugees, Clinton, immigration.

Just because your priorities do not equal mine, does not inhibit the right to voice my opinion. No, you cannot stop me from speaking up, from attending marches, from doing anything in my power to end injustice where I see it. The more I see what America is becoming, the more I have wonder how hateful America has to become to open their eyes to change.