I was given a wonderful opportunity this summer. Being an Odyssey content creator, I was given the opportunity to attend the Donald Trump Presidential rally in Westfield, Ind., to report on behalf of Odyssey Online. I got a press pass and everything. And it was a life changing experience.

I was encouraged to go around and interview people, get their thoughts on Trump, his presence here in Indiana, even funny outfits and personalities. I had no idea what I was walking into. For anyone who doesn't know me, I have darker, tan skin and black curly hair. Basically, I look Hispanic, and though I have no Hispanic lineage in my family, I was still subject to awful discrimination just 45 minutes north of my home.

I politely walked around the Trump rally, dressed professionally in khakis and a polo, with my media pass pinned proudly on my chest, and asked people if I could interview them. I was so eager to get my practice in as a reporter, I did not take a minute to deliberate over how I would be perceived. Just walking through the crowd proved to be terrifying. People stopped and gawked as if I was some freak animal someone had set loose. The people I did talk to were curt and sometimes rude as they turned me away time and time again, just to jump at the chance to pose for the white photographer walking around. People sneered at me as I walked by, stopped talking and began to whisper about the poor elephant in the room.

I quickly retreated to the press barricades, where it was void of Trump supporters. I stood along the back railing, and as the room began to fill, more audience members had to stand behind me. We all stood there four hours, reporters and supporters alike, waiting for Mr. Trump to make his appearance. When he did, the audience roared in applause. People began to ask me to move, rightfully so. I was in their way and over six feet tall. Unfortunately, there was nowhere I could go without not being able to see it myself, and I had a job to do. I politely told the people behind me, only to find that was met with indignant comments, and even people leaning forward to shove me out of the way.

The scariest part was still to come. Trump, after riling up the crowd for a while, turned his eyes to the press. A hundred or so people, surrounded in barricades, and called them, us the "most dishonest people in the world," and the "worst human beings." And the hundreds in the surrounding audience agreed in thunderous applause, and began to shake the railings.

I do not fear Trump. He is one measly, opinionated, misguided, uninformed, slightly orange man, but he is still just one man. What I fear is what he ignites in America, in friends and neighbors. He ignites the kind of hate I have come to fear, the kind of prejudice we teach in history books. He has given a voice to the people we thought didn't exist anymore. He has proven that it takes one match to light a fire, and America is burning. He has allowed people to come out of the woodworks and speak their mind. It is a kind of speaking that will make people shudder back in their homes. And with the announcement of Mike Pence as his running mate -- a man who has ignited the same fire in Indiana -- I do not fear the two men who could potentially sit in the White House. Instead, I fear the America they are trying to create.