Despite The Outcome, You Are The President Of Your Own Actions

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I sat up and listened as Donald Trump called for us to ‘bind the wounds of division’ in his victory speech and let out a stressed and surprising laugh. A man that has time after time divided the country with his words and bullying. I didn’t vote for Trump. I never would. I respect people’s opinions on candidates. I enjoy hearing them, but his views just aren’t parallel to mine. I understand that this country aches for change in so many aspects, but I personally wasn’t looking for a setback.

I have a lot of young children in my life.  My job is to interact with high school and college students daily.  I tell them they can be anything they dedicate themselves to be.  Be a musician. Be an artist. Be a doctor. Today, I want to tell people that it’s okay to be mad.  To be concerned. To be afraid. It’s warranted. But most importantly I want to tell people to be kind. To be accepting. To be better.  Be better than what was elected.  Treat people like actual human beings aside from their labels of gender, sexual orientation, race, citizenship, religion or beliefs.  That will get us through this.

Just because this man has won does not mean that you cannot bring forth change. Just because he’s taken this office does not mean that you cannot be a good person. A person of power does not dictate how we treat each other. Work hard. Keep your head up. Treat everyone with respect.  Small steps like these can work towards changing the world. Because this country and this world still need fixing.

Channel the fear, the anxiety, the concern into good.  Use this as a motivator.  Good will trump bad.  Love, kindness, and acceptance will always trump hate.

I’m not the type of person that will take my opinion later along this political journey and say, “I told you he would do this…”  I don’t want to say “I told you so.” Because I don’t want our worst thoughts and imaginations to happen to this country.  To me, America has always been great.

Be hopeful. Be kind. Be better and our world will in turn do the same.