This year I became something I never thought I would be: cynical and pessimistic. The rise of Trump and xenophobia in the US caused me jump onto the “Let’s move to Canada!” bandwagon, and the personal shame I felt from how desensitized I’ve become to gun violence due to its incomprehensible frequency slowly deteriorated my sense of pride and efficacy towards my country. Worst of all, the events of this past year made me lose hope for the future.

Then, I went on a week-long trip to Washington DC for a week where I learned about political efficacy and leadership from a wonderful nonprofit organization called the Close Up Foundation and from innumerable amazing speakers with 219 of my fellow peers from across the country.

I can’t explain it. At least, I can’t do it justice. It’s such a strong feeling within me that I am still grappling to process and understand now. Somehow, the events that transpired on the trip have made me want to go into politics so I can help create a better, more democratic, more equal future. I want to take the ideas of unity, democracy, and equality and spread them throughout our society.

Maybe it was my amazing teacher over the course of the trip, Nikki Ulrich, the curriculum and training manager at Close Up. Maybe it was Wes Moore, an unbelievably genuine, modest, wise, and inspiring person. Maybe it was people like Eva Vega, Barbara Bush, Secretary of Education John King, Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader, or Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. Maybe it was all of the meaningful conversations I had with my fellow student leaders, conversations that showed me how capable my generation is despite all of the negativity and insult out there about those dang millennials. Maybe, it was going to memorials of some of our greatest individual leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln.

I’m starting to think it’s a combination of all of those things. See, look back to the end of my first paragraph about how I had lost hope this year. As an aside, to me, hope is the most powerful emotion we have. Hope is what inspires and motivates people to do good. Hope is the driving force behind social change and action. Without hope, I think we’d all lose what makes us human. And on this trip, with everything I experienced and learned and everyone I met, I regained hope. Hope that even though right now it feels like the world is ending, that when my generation fills the leaderships roles of this country and this world that things will change.

And I’m not just saying that. Honestly. From what I observed, the group of people I spent the week with who come from a wide range of ethnicities, races, religions, gender and sexual identities, economic situations, geographical locations, and family and personal situations, were all able to respect each other’s diverse opinions to discuss controversial and relevant topics respectfully. I mean honestly, we were basically the young adult version of Congress. And we were able to unite arms linked at the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his immortal “I Have A Dream” speech to challenge the current Congress to look beyond partisan politics and unite to enact change. Truly, we were a mix of Clinton, Trump, or neither supporters, and we still believed in unity to bring about positive change in our society. If the leaders of tomorrow can do that, why can’t the leaders now?

Someday, I hope to possibly run for national office. I anticipate that many of the student leaders at the summit will someday run as well, and together, we can bring the same spirit of unity that we had on those steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the real Congress, and we can lift the U.S. and the world from the ashes of our past. Together, we will set a new standard for what real democracy looks like. We will challenge the world to step up.

Credit where credit is due: Thank you Bank of America for this amazing opportunity. Words cannot express my gratitude.