After Trump won, a heaviness settled over my high school, where whites are in the minority. Nobody was focused in class, we sat glancing down at our phones, guzzling down the news in denial. My teachers all dealt with our inattention differently. Some suppressed our concerns, pressing onward with the day to day curriculum, but our everyday routines did little to settle our nerves. Everyone was still uneasy.
My U.S government teacher, Mr. Campbell, recognized our anxiety. He dragged us outside to the school’s front lawn, and had us sit in a circle. He stood sternly before joining us and initiating a class round of the school yard game “Down by the Banks”. I watched my tough as nails, fifty something teacher, giggle as he sang about the bull frogs jumping from bank to banky-- calling this out of character would be an understatement.
At first, I was confused as hell as to why we were doing this instead of talking about the election. Mr. Campbell has more opinions than he knows what to do with, and after all it was a government class. Delving into the disaster of democracy we had just witnessed felt required.But then, Mr. Campbell, while looking on to his students, said "watch everybody just lose themselves." And then, I understood. I watched my classmates, some of whom now feared deportation, forget about the election and its uncertainties.
I'll never forget what that looked like, and how it felt. Sitting on the school's lawn, with the state capitol as our backdrop and terrifying election results looming over our heads, we, kids of all different colors, sat hand in hand, singing.
We don't all know each other's name, and we might not have many moments like that again. But maybe that's part of the beauty of it. Despite not knowing each other very well, we all wordlessly united, not for the sake of any political statement, but just because.
Just because we had a teacher who knew what he was doing, and knew how to show us that it doesn't take an agreeable president to make us feel united, and peaceful. That much will forever be in our power, with a Trump presidency or without.