The air was filled with sirens and the buzz of helicopters circling overhead. Cop cars surrounded the intersection at the edge of USC’s campus where I was waiting to cross the street. Voices surfaced, coming closer and closer. Finally, it became loud and clear “Not my President!”, “Not my President!”, they shouted. To my surprise, the shouting came from local middle school students. Although too young to vote, their voices were heard loud and clear. They chose to take the day off from school to take a stand. In the 90 degree Los Angeles heat, sweat dripped from their faces and there was fire in their eyes.
Three weeks earlier, I volunteered at a community center just off campus, mentoring these same students and teaching them about leadership, organization and teamwork. Together, we discussed how to solve the issues in our local neighborhood such as hunger, homelessness and poverty. These students were bright, enthusiastic and curious. While I was teaching them, what I didn’t realize was that they were teaching me. At age 12, many of them had smartphones and proceeded to tell me about all of the cool apps that they were using with their friends. I left the session feeling hopeful for the future generation.
This hope quickly faded when our nation elected a man who has made repeated racist, sexist, and elitist comments. No one knows how this man will affect the future.
These past few days have been hard. The sun is shining but it feels as if there are invisible gray clouds looming. This week on campus, I saw multiple classmates crying.
There’s no doubt that this election is historic, but not in the way we had expected. While many of us are shocked, stunned and in denial of the results, we can decide how we act on it. We can decide to create a better future because no man or woman is stronger than all of us together. Although Hillary Clinton didn’t win, we can carry on her slogan of “Stronger Together” – because we are the United States of America. And we must remain united – especially during these hard times.
In the digital age where information is spread in a matter of seconds, we must decide to spread love. Instead of pointing fingers and spreading blame, we must spread kindness, joy and gratitude to those around us because we can only get through this together. We have come so far to let one day turn back all of the days that our nation has fought for equality, fairness and justice. We have come so far, but we can’t give up now. There is too much at stake.
Many people have reacted to the election results by saying: “I’m moving to Canada” (in fact the Canadian immigration website crashed due to high traffic following the election), but moving would be the easy way out. It’s an uphill battle, but we must commit to making this country a better place – a place where we can all feel included and where we all can confidently say that we are proud to be American. Like these brave students, we must take this step forward together.