With the news of our President-Elect, tensions are high. People are anxious. I am stressed. People are visibly depressed. I am feeling down. For a while, I felt like nothing could change this feeling. Nothing could help make this any better. Then I opened my book.

1. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Chamber of Secrets"

Many of us have the ability to be great, the ability to be terrible, and the ability to be somewhere in the middle. We choose to be great, and we choose to be terrible. It gives me pride to know that I choose to be my best self, and that some people might not do that. And that's their choice, I can't change that. However, look at other people and hope that they make good choices because, sometimes, they can affect us as well.

2. "No good sittin' worryin' abou' it. What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does." –Rubeus Hagrid, "The Goblet of Fire"

This is so powerful to me, especially now. Personally, I am not a fan of our president-elect, and I will do everything in my power to make sure the people I love are safe. However, what's coming will come. And when it does come, we'll meet it. Even Hogwarts fell to Voldemort. This is just a small bump in the road, and we will move toward love and peace.

3. “The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Prisoner of Azkaban"

Now is not the time to be predicting the future. We must live in the present and do everything we can for the now. Nothing good comes of trying to predict the future. Who knows? We could be delightfully surprised.

4. “Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.” –Luna Lovegood, "The Order of the Phoenix"

Luna Lovegood is a beautiful soul. We may lose something, but they have a way of coming back to us. Even in different ways. We might lose some things, we might lose ourselves, but everything will come back. It will come full circle, we just need to take a moment and give it the time to return.

5. “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Goblet of Fire"

Remember, we are #StrongerTogether. We must stand together in times of trouble and work to make things right.

6. “The world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” –J. K. Rowling, "The Order of the Phoenix"

We can continue to be good in the darkness. We must continue to spread warmth and joy, we must stay strong.

7. “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Goblet of Fire"

THIS IS AMAZING JUST... TAKE IT IN, FRIENDS.

8. “We cannot choose our fate, but we can choose others. Be careful in knowing that.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Order of the Phoenix"

This is more a reminder for the next presidential election in 2020. Our fate is not set, however we can choose which direction we will be going in. We chose this, and now we just have to start working towards our next decision.

9. “It is important,” Dumbledore said, “to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Half-Blood Prince"

There will always be evil. There will always be good, and we must always fight. We must. It is our duty.

10. “Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels, but old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Order of the Phoenix"

TRUE.

11. “Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living, and above all those who live without love.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Deathly Hallows"

Love trumps hate.

12. “It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Half-Blood Prince"

When I read this it struck me. I opened my book ("The Half-Blood Prince is my favorite) to this page and read this first, and I was taken back. It was perfect. I do not fear Donald J. Trump, I fear the unknowns attached to him. I am afraid because I do not know what he will do, how he will do it, and I do not know where he actually stands or what his policies are. That is what terrifies me.

13. “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both influencing injury, and remedying it.” –Albus Dumbledore, "The Deathly Hallows"

Now is the time to use words to express ourselves. Not violent actions. Use words and passive actions, peaceful protests and social media posts. We must stand strong.

14. “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” –Sirius Black, "The Goblet of Fire"

The way Trump talks about his inferiors (according to him, Latino/a people, Muslims, LGBTQ+ people, POC, women, etc.) like they are literal trash. They are dirt to him. They are the ground he walks on, and I'm not okay with it.

15. “We are all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.” –Kingsley Shacklebolt, "The Deathly Hallows"

This is my favorite. We're all worth saving, we're all worth the exact same. We're the same. We deserve equality, we deserve happiness, we deserve safety.