On Friday, October 28, 2016, President Barack Obama joined hundreds of Orlando residents at the University of Central Florida to rally for the next President of the United States. As a UCF student, it felt like a personal honor to have such an important and wonderful man come to my beloved university to talk about a critical time in our nation.

Barack Obama has always been an inspiration to me and many other young people. There is no denying that he is one of the best public speakers and just an all around great man. He has such an influence on so many people, and that showed that day when people from all over Orlando filled the CFE Arena. Many more stood outside to listen because there was simply not enough room for all the people that wanted to see him. There was no questioning the passion for this country he projected when he urged all of us to go out and vote early and on November 8^th. His choice was clear. There is no other way to keep this country from falling into the hands of a man who is unfit and unqualified to be our Commander in Chief.

No president is perfect, but I agreed with Obama when he said we are better off than we were eight years ago. If we don’t go out and vote, we would willingly be putting our country at risk of losing all of the progress we have made. I do not want to live in a country where people of color, the LGBTQ community and women are treated as any less of a human than a straight white male. As the President said, it is this type of “mean spirited politics that will set us back.” There are things that both candidates have done that have hurt their campaign that cannot be taken back. But while the other guy handled his wrongdoings with angry outbursts and transference of blame, the right choice took hers in stride.

As a country, we need to make a choice. Do we want to live under the dictation of a man whose mind cannot comprehend progress, or do we want to protect the progress we have made? Do we want to stand alone or stand together? We will not succumb to fear. We need to take action and defeat it. There is only one way we can do that. As President Barack Obama simply put it, “He can’t hear us ‘boo’, but he can hear our votes.”