On Nov. 8, Americans decided who they wanted to run their community, state and country. It is a great privilege to live in the United States and be able to have the option to choose who we want to lead our nation whereas citizens of other countries could be killed for trying. That is one of the main reasons why I voted this year.
After months of rallies, non-stop news broadcasts, Facebook rants and memes of Donald Trump’s hair, the day has finally come. After being too late to send in my absentee ballot, I was lucky enough to have my friend pick me up while she was on her way from Kutztown University also to vote. On the way home, my friend and I were trying to figure out how the polls worked. Neither of us had voted before; I had to explain to her that you have to go to a specific voting poll, depending on your residency, in order to vote.
I was worried about the polls because I was afraid that I was going to hit the wrong button and vote for the wrong person but the ballot box was pretty straightforward once I got in there. There was a giant poster of the ballot box and what the buttons looked like; my mom was working at the polls we were assigned to vote and showed me how it all worked.
As I watched the polls come in on CBS, the numbers were too close for comfort. Throughout the entire night every screen I passed by had the results up on it. The difference between Trump and Clinton’s result were decimals there really was no telling who was going to win. I was nervous and those around me were nervous too. The T.V. was on in the library while I was working and I kept MSNBC up on the desktop as they live streamed onto Youtube. After work, my roommate and I were rooting for our favorite candidate until one o’clock in the morning when we both decided it was time to go to bed. We slept restlessly throughout the night, nervous about what the next four years will hold.
The day after it seemed like there was an elephant in every room I walked into. All of my professors asked if we wanted to have a discussion about the new president-elect and only one of my classes discussed it throughout the rest of the week. I couldn’t wait for Nov. 9 because I was hoping for all of the campaign ads and bickering about which candidate is better to stop except it only got worse.
Now, there are protests erupting in cities all across the country and people are beginning to think it is okay to commit hate crimes and vandalism, seemingly because Trump is in office. Our country seems to be more polarized than ever and it needs to change. President Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
The whole point of the United States of America is to be united instead of divided. Hopefully Americans learn to respect each other again.
