Following the results of last week’s election, I’ve personally had a lot of time to worry about the fate of my country. I’ve spent hours worrying for my non-white, LGBT+, Muslim and immigrant friends. I’ve prayed for those who will likely lose their health care, for those who will lose the rights to their bodies. I have feared for the refugees currently overseas who will perish because my country will not provide them with safety. It’s safe to say that I’ve spent a good portion of time since the end of the 2016 election, the first election of my life that I was eligible to participate in, anxiously concerned for my fellow human beings that will suffer in the next four years to come. However, as my general anxieties for those marginalized settle, I have begun to focus on the effects of this elections on my own future, particularly my professional one after bursting out of the bubble that is college.
As previously stated, this was the first election I was able to vote in, being eighteen years old. I am currently a freshman at my university, looking to double major in Environmental Studies and Politics. I never thought that the results of my country’s election would cause me to actually fear for my future after receiving my degree, but unfortunately, I’ve contemplated changing my both of my majors because of America’s decision.
I have always been passionate about the environment and its future, and I am constantly considering the damage being done to our planet, the only one we have, the only one our children will have. I am involved with animal rights and well-versed in alternative energy sources, so Environmental Studies seemed to be a sensible route for me to take. As for my major in Politics, I am just as impassioned by human rights and civil liberties as I am by the future of our environment. I can only hope that my studies will successfully prepare me for giving back to the world in the way I have always dreamed of.
However, only very recently have I began to doubt everything I had planned to pursue in my life. After all, what does my future look like as an Environmental Studies major when the president for my entire college career doesn’t believe in climate change?
Donald Trump has infamously claimed that climate change is just a “hoax” created by the Chinese government. He has also discussed completely stepping away from the monumental Paris Agreement, a deal signed by around 195 nations that agreed to limit their greenhouse emissions and strive towards fighting global warming. He supports coal dependency and is against the Clean Power Plan, which attempts to lower greenhouse gas emissions in America by 32 percent by the year 2030. This man’s rhetoric alludes to him wanting to turn environmental policy back at least a decade, completely stalling progression on a topic that is one of the most significant to our future on this planet.
So what does this mean for me, a student who wishes to do nothing more than improve the environment and future on earth for generations to come? What will my career look like after four years of a society being dictated by a man who believes global warming is a conspiracy created by another country? It makes me wonder if my future is as stable as I once thought it was, if my career will even be respected. The uncertainty goes beyond my personal fate as well, affecting the bigger picture as well, tearing the seams and stripping the colors. How much more damage can our world take before we are too far to help it? After another four years of regression, what will be left to defend and protect in our fragile ecosystem, one that’s been crumbling under the weight of our carbon footprint for decades?
My dilemma does not end there. My second intended major represents a future that appears just as bleak to me as the first: politics. Nothing has taught me more about being a woman in politics than this election. The 2016 election has shown me that a woman can have decades of experience, work hard and spend half her life giving back to our country and still lose to her male opponent. A male that lacks any experience with government, foreign and domestic. A male that has not faced any adversity or sacrifice for his position, nor has worked towards bettering anyone’s life but his own. A woman can be ten times more qualified than a man for a role and still lose it to him for seemingly no reason other than gender.
When a woman who has made only a handful of mistakes in her 30-year career loses to a man who has made dozens of mistakes in his less-than-two year career, I get a very clear message from our society. Enough people do not want to see a woman in a position of power that they are willing to sacrifice our future as a credible nation in order to stop her. I can not explain the grief that hits me when I think about the opposition I will face as a female politician. This election has shown me that my opinions, policies, knowledge and experience pale in significance when my gender is taken into consideration. Will I spend my lifetime working towards bettering my country just to be shot down for something as trivial as gender?
Though these considerations have been weighing on my mind for days and, I’ll admit, have discouraged me multiple times, I am a firm believer in change and progression despite opposition. I know that nothing will change if one just gives up, and that though the road will be tougher than others, the end result will be rewarding. The future is always uncertain, but the only way an outcome is definite is if you don’t make an attempt at all. I intend to be the change I wish to see, and for that reason, giving up is not an option.
