I voted for Hillary Clinton and I am not ashamed to say that I'm with her. This past Tuesday it was announced that Donald J. Trump is the projected future president of the United States with 290 electoral votes against Hillary Rodham Clinton's 232. However, once all of the votes were tallied, it was revealed that Clinton won the popular vote with 60,467,601 votes nationwide compared to Trump's 60,072,551 votes, according to CNN as of Friday, November 11. This quickly set off a fire in the bellies of Americans everywhere and on all sides of the spectrum.

I saw things that appalled me. I saw Trump supporters posting about how now that he was elected, they were going to grab women by their genitals because "if the president can get away with it so can [they]". I saw Hillary supporters immediately badmouthing everyone who voted for Trump, spewing the same hatred that they were accusing others of. I saw voters associating traits of the candidates with everyone who voted for them. I watched from the sidelines as our country tore itself apart from the inside. In my twitter feed, I saw someone I know posting about how he was laughing that a homophobe won the state where a mass shooting of LGBTQ+ citizens took place. I saw people underneath that making bets on how long it would be before Donald Trump was assassinated. My heart was breaking for the state of our country.

In the midst of all of the chaos, I was reminded of one of my favorite Tenth Avenue North songs, "The Struggle." Some of the lyrics say:

"Hallelujah
We are free to struggle
We're not struggling, to be free
Your blood bought and makes us children
Children, drop your chains and sing"

These words really stuck with me. Whether you believe in God or not, this song can apply to America. We live in a country where we are free to elect a president. We are free to protest and we are free to speak out about injustices we see happening. The blood of soldiers, the blood of our countrymen was spent so that we can have freedom here. It's time we drop our chains and sing the praises of our great country. I, as a young woman, now have the right to vote and speak my voice because the blood of suffragettes was spilled. Our African American citizens have rights because the blood of slaves was spilled. Let us not forget how lucky we are to be able to choose a president, or how lucky we are to be allowed to speak out against him.

I decided in that moment to look for the good to come out of this, the beauty that can come from these ashes. I was shocked to find that if you are looking for good, you will find it. I found out that the very first Latina was elected to the Senate, Catherine Cortez Masto from Washington. Minnesota elected Ilhan Omar to the House of Representatives, and she became America's first Somali-American legislator. Kamala Harris became the first female African-American Senator since 1999.

I saw Trump supporters standing with minorities, vowing to fight for their rights. They promised not to label all Muslims as terrorists, not to treat women like objects, and not to assume all young black men are criminals. All they wanted was for people to stop calling every Trump voter racist. I saw Hillary supporters saying that they will stand under Trump in order to unite our great country. They don't want to be called uneducated because their candidate didn't win, or to be called a "millennial" as an insult. Isn't that what democracy is all about? Listening to one another's opinions and not casting people aside. So no more, "He's not my president." No more, "Put Hillary in jail." No more hate and no more bigotry.

Stand together and love one another. It's okay to not agree. It's okay to celebrate or mourn your candidate, but at the end of the day, we are still the citizens of America. We are brothers and sisters united under our flag. If you are protesting, do it peacefully. Remember that you are protesting a candidate, not the people who voted for him, because they are your neighbors. If you are praising your candidate, do it respectfully. Don't bash the people who didn't vote for them, because they are your friends. No more memes about leaving the country, harming each other or attacking other views.

If you want to live in a more accepting America, it starts with you. Accept that people have different opinions. If you want to be heard, start with listening to others. We the people of the United States of America create the atmosphere, not the President. We are the ones acting out, not them. It's time we all grow up and start loving one another a little bit more. I have hope for this toxic America, and it starts with you and me.