First off, I better start off with a disclaimer.

* I am by no means a political expert nor do I have have a lot of experience in politics. These are just my opinions and I do not intend on offending anyone.*

Okay, now that we got that all sorted, I just want to rant to you about some spontaneous thoughts I was having as I was watching the election. Disclaimer numero dos: I am not going to dig up the bajillion other articles, polls, theories, videos, presidential debates, and all of that other previous political jazz to make points. I am not writing this article to hate on either candidate. No hate is intended here. Zilch. Got it? Good. I am doing this merely as a way to let you have a bit of insight into my brain. With social media being such a huge influence in this candidacy, I am going to assume that everyone has been keeping tabs with what is happening. (Holy crap, by the speed I'm going, I'm probably going to need two more disclaimers by the end of this article!)

Something surprising to me is that I was in the fifth grade when Obama was being sworn in! I was around 10 years old at that time, and now at 18 (the first election most us young adults could vote in) a lot of stuff has changed. I am not a political science major, but I have always been interested in following politics. I think that had to do with taking speech/debate. Although I didn't do it for long, I really learned to grow an appreciation for politics, foreign policy, public speaking, and just the art of communication. And can you blame me? With the most controversial election in history, it probably doesn't come as a surprise that I was sitting on my couch with a lot of popcorn and eagerly watching everything that was happening. So, Trump officially got 289 electoral votes and is going to be the 45th president. If you are wondering: yes, I was supporting Hillary during the election. As a Indian girl and second generation immigrant, it may not be much of a shocker that I was for Hillary. This article is not focusing on my worries, and the whole "America's future is ruined." I am not thrilled with the election results, but millions of people have expressed that already so that's nothing new. I focused on introspection. Throughout the whole election, I was trying to understand where people were coming from. WHY Trump? Isn't that the underlying question we have all been wondering? I decided to go around and interview people and I did get some answers. So without further ado, here's my reflection:

My views solely before talking to other people was based on just doing case studies, reading some articles,and previous knowledge from school. I have taken Government, Econ, Business Econ, and multiple other history classes in high school, and usually would have to take a quiz thingie to see which party I fell under (basically to determine if I was more liberal or conservative, right winged or left winged kinda thing). My problem was that my results were inconclusive. No, seriously. I fell smack in the middle. I had some conservative views to match the liberal ones. As a 18 year old, I don't have a clear party that I associate with. People tell me all the time, "Well, my family is Republican, so I support the Republican party." My family doesn't really associate with a particular side, so I think that really lets me have time to develop my views. I'm not saying it is wrong to have the same views as your family, but I'm saying don't have the same views simply because of your family. Fair?

During this election, I had people tell me that Donald Trump says all those things to stay in the news. I really pondered over this. If that is the case, I can't even deny the fact that it is a pretty efficient way to get fast publicity and boy was there a lot of it going on during this election!!! I'm not going into details about all the controversial things he said (you read the headlines), nor am I going to mention the numerous accounts of people speaking about Trump's behavior towards them. I don't want to beat a dead horse or as my speech/debate coach would say: rehash. I don't agree with any of the offensive things Trump says... I don't think all Trump voters do either, but obviously people were willing to overlook that. I wanted to know what policies, or reasonings justified them to give their vote to him over Hillary.

Firstly, I thought Hillary has way more experience. She is more qualified from a political point of view. She has worked as Senator of the State, and has spent countless years of her life in this area of profession. A downside was that she did have several controversies/ negative cases throughout her years, which strongly affected people's decision to vote for her. Throughout the election, some people affirmed their support of her by saying "I am with her", while I heard some people say, "I am voting for Trump because it is a vote against her." People told me that the policies she wanted to implement during her term was not going to bring about a change and was practically keeping the American government stagnant at where it has been. Trump, on the other hand, would be making a change in with his policies. Interesting viewpoint. (Good or bad change, we'll have to see.) Also, someone told me that the idea of him having no prior experience in politics may have actually appealed to voters. I had heard numerous people say, "Trump isn't a politician. He doesn't know how to spin things, but rather is very honest." Damn right. He says whatever he wants, but I actually have noticed that he's starting to behave better and his speeches have improved. Gotta thank his campaign manager for that, but he's learning. In a way, I have started to understand the no experience thing. I do like Hillary because she has experience and I can't undermine her work; but someone very kindly explained that although he doesn't have a political background, he does have a more economical background and policies which target tax reform, healthcare, etc. People do want to see a more economic change, and they think Trump will provide that. My main belief was that he's unqualified to be president because he is lacking leadership and experience, but I guess everyone has to start out somewhere in order to gain it.

I liked looking at poll predictions; I found it really interesting that after the first presidential debate, it was predicted that Hillary would win by 92%! Quite the opposite turnout!!!! A fellow peer explained that people may have lied on the polls because a) the polls were online (and the internet sometimes can be deceiving), or b) people were unsure/hesitant to go with trump initially. People therefore decided to pick their version of "the lesser of the two evils." Now that I'm thinking about it, the online polls may have also been ineffective, because many people probably didn't vote, thus resulting in a skewed or nonresponse bias. Also, we must take in the several other types of bias that the polls may have conducted such as: under-coverage and voluntary response bias.

Now: one thing I didn't like was the concept of voting for Hillary simply because she was a women and would make history by becoming the first women president. Voting for a president should not involve gender as a factor. I wanted to learn and take a side during the election. I made sure to look at the policies of both Hillary and Trump and then after carefully consideration decided which candidate held my views. Actually a quiz I took for my Business Law class told me my views aligned most with Bernie, then Hillary, and so on. I think schools are doing a good job to try to get students interested in the government, and we should be be making a thought out choice, rather than a rash one.

I was a Hillary supporter and even now still support her. However, the reality is that Trump won. Our democracy chose him. I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see how Trump will "make America great again."