Me: "You know, one day, years down the line, you're going to be telling your children about this, about how things went down tonight"
Friend: "We won't have to. Their textbooks are going to be all about this"
Part of this article is the story of November 9th, 2016, part of this is the story about people who came together despite the divide, and the rest of it is us trying to figure out what happens now.
Here's the gist of it: after a year of crazy debates, polarized conventions and intense arguments amongst friends and family, the presidential election finally came to an end on the night of November 9th, and Donald Trump won the electoral college with 278 seats, therefore becoming the 45th President Of The United States. However, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Ever since then, tensions have been mounting against people. There have been protests across the country, and even twenty minutes away from where I live.
So what happened that night? Well, here's the brief version of it. It all started at 7:00 PM, when the first results began coming in. At this point in time, Trump was winning Indiana and Kentucky, which were two states we knew he was going to win, so we continued to sit back and see the results come in, with strong hopes that Hillary was going to win. As the hours passed that night, the two were winning states left and right, and there was a bit of a tie between the two. However, Trump had more electoral seats at the time. The two hours from 8-10 PM were by far the tensest, most nerve-wracking hours of our lives, watching the votes go up and down and one candidate taking a lead over the other. Two hours rarely feel like a day, but when they do, it's torturous. Then, something happened. It all started at 11 PM, when Hillary won California. At this point, she got a lead over Trump in terms of electoral seats. The 200-something people around me cheered, and things began to look up. As the night went on, though, things decided to take a massive turn. Trump began to win several states, and he lead in the electoral seat numbers again. At around this time, the atmosphere changed. No one was cheering anymore. Everyone sat in stunned silence as the realization that Donald Trump was about to become the President. People broke down too. I'm not going to go into some of the details, because there were some private moments said amongst people. However, here's how the night ended:
And history was made.
What follows now is the story of the next few days. If there was anything this election has taught us, it’s that people are divided. We’re at a point where no two people can agree on the same thing while standing in front of each other. Their viewpoints differ greatly. Race plays a part, gender plays a part, social standing plays a part, and eventually, we can attack each other on those things because we have those tools. That’s not what happened, though. At least, where I was.
In New York, there have been protests ever since Tuesday night. Peaceful protests, but there is definitely a sense of unity amongst people who are living in the city and the rest of the state. On my campus, a place where there are students from all walks of life, from different places around the globe, there wasn’t a distancing. There was unity there too. I am no introvert, but more people talked to me in the last week than ever before. We wanted to be there for each other more than anything. It made me realize that people needed each other more than ever at this point where that societal divide exists, and I wanted to be there for them. And despite that gloomy Wednesday, somehow, people made it through that day.
Personally, I was emotionally compromised. For three straight days, I couldn’t do anything right, and I kept fumbling on the simplest things in the world. I had a moment on Wednesday evening where I was staring into the mirror and I broke down. I must’ve cried for a solid half-hour. It wasn’t until Friday morning where I decided to pick myself up and told myself “I can’t let this get to me. Yes, I am shocked, and yes, it is crazy, but I can’t change who I am because of this.” And that’s exactly what I did. I went back to being my happy, funny self.
This only increased over the next few days. People came closer. The point of this article isn’t to make political jabs at Trump, but to point out how people unhappy—the population of whom are a little more than half the country—came together, not go their separate ways.
So what happens now? Well, for good or ill, Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States and he will be sworn into office on January 2017. This is where all those people come into the picture once more. Throughout the campaign, things have been said regarding his administration, and how it’s going to run. And his choices for people who he intends should run things, like Steve Bannon, may not bode well for many. This is where the people’s voice matters. You should go out there. You should let yourself be heard. You should have your requests met. You should show courage in the face of someone telling you something in racial slurs. You should remain positive and optimistic and emotionally unscarred, because you can’t let the villain get to you emotionally. If that happens, the villain’s already won. It’s the hero’s job to stand up and fight and rid themselves of any obstructions. And there is no better time than now to be the hero.
Before I wrap this up, I want to say one thing: I am an international student. I am not an American. This election shouldn’t have affected me at all. I always have a home to go back to. But this is important because right now, the last thing you want to see is people from other places bailing out and not showing support for friends. I want to be there for my friends who are here, and I will be, and trying to get away from it won’t help. And that’s what I’m going to do, because we’re all in this together, regardless of the country you’re from.
