This year's election was the first election I was able to vote in. A year ago, if you had asked me "who are you going to vote for?" or "Are you going to vote" I wouldn't have said, "I have no idea" and "no, I probably won't." However, here we are, the day after the election and I care a lot more about this than I'd like to admit.

I decided to take a political communications class this semester because I wanted to be educated on this election. For the last two months in class, we've been dissecting this election and based on the knowledge I've learned in class and the knowledge I learned on my own, I can honestly say that I'm truly disgusted with the results of the election.

I know some of you may not agree with me, and that's ok. I just ask that you respect my opinion like I'll respect yours.

I have so many thoughts rushing through my head at the moment. Last night, on November 8, 2016, history was made. America elected the most unqualified person to be president (I don't say that maliciously, it's literally a fact). As my friends and I were gathered around our TV in our common room watching the results roll in, we were optimistic that Hillary would pull through and win this dragged out race. When Trump won most of the battleground states, that's when we knew we were screwed. We genuinely cried a little bit when he won Pennsylvania too. Seven college students, millennials to be exact, were sitting in their room terrified of what happens next.

When you really think about it, though, Trump didn't really win. Hate won. Racism won. Homophobia won. Fear won. Trump instilled a fear in his voters that if they didn't vote for him, we would be stuck with "crooked Hillary." Here's my thought process on the matter: I would've taken "crooked Hillary" over Trump any day (even though the situation with the emails and Benghazi were investigated and nothing illegal was found in either case). I refuse to accept that a sexist, racist, homophobic, and sexual predator is now our president.

Multiple people that I've talked to, are genuinely afraid for their rights as gay people, as Muslims, as immigrants, as women, as any minority Trump has singled out in hate. They're concerned for their safety, and I don't blame them.

People say they didn't want Hillary for president because she's a liar, but what do you call Trump? Among a lot of other things, he is a liar too. He constantly lied during the debates saying he never said things that we know he did because there's proof. He lied when he says he respects women and then turns around and calls Hillary "a nasty woman" in the middle of the debate.

At the end of the day, Obama wasn't a perfect president. Under his presidency, though, we saw marriage equality across the country, we saw our economy begin to heal, we saw love and peace from our president. He did everything he could to make America what it should be; land of the free and home of the brave. I strongly believe that with Trump as president, we will regress as a country about 75 years. All we can do now though is stand together and continue to fight for our rights as Americans. If we don't give up, we won't lose ourselves in this mess.