I will always remember the night in November in 2016, waiting for results of swing states to determine the election. There I was with a very uncomfortable, fixated mindset for a couple hours on the Democratic Primary. Waiting.

I was waiting to see where the future of our country would go, where our election would take us and tell us about where our voters stand. I am not voting in Maryland's primary until April, but today, on Super Tuesday for the Democratic Primary, I'm nervous. I am pulling hard for Bernie Sanders to win this election because I don't think we can stand with another status quo candidate, and right now, I'm really nervous for what message Super Tuesday sends for the course of the rest of the Democratic Primary.

I will make a statement that I remain cynical that whoever becomes President is going to make much a difference in my day to day life or the lives of my students as a teacher. Most of the time, candidates don't zero in on inner-city problems in inner-city communities like mine in Baltimore.

But Bernie has given me the most hope as an educator and member of my community, and that's why I'm pulling for Bernie so hard. Right now, I'm watching live results come in. I'm waiting with anticipation about what's going to happen in every state on Super Tuesday, especially states with a lot of delegates like Texas and California.

I hate the waiting. I know what's best for me right now is to go on my night run, turn off the news, and do whatever I have to do for work tomorrow. Life will go on after an election. It always does, and I'll remember that shocking moment in 2016 when it felt like, to me and my community, like the world was going to end with Donald Trump became President.

The world didn't end. I largely disengaged from politics to focus on issues I was dealing with in my personal life, to realize that the day-to-day encounters and experiences with my friends and people I interacted with were much, much more important than whatever was happening in out-of-touch Washington D.C. I focused a lot more on local politics and my daily life a lot more than I started to politics, and found myself growing a lot more and going through the most transformational stage of my life in the process.

This is not to say that politics isn't important, because it most definitely is. But sometimes it's hard to see that change in your day to day life. When you live a life day to day, go through a routine, and stay in the same place, it's hard to see change come. It might happen gradually, but it's the people on the ground and the people you interact with on a daily basis that make the change. It's the members of the community.

That is why I know it's best for me to just turn off the TV and news right now, because it's election season once again. I'm being pulled into the reality TV show that is the mirage that whoever is President is going to do that much in the first place for my city and my community.

I hate waiting on elections because that means an election has power over me and power over my community. The truth is that local elections matter more. That much is true. But we have the power over our own lives and own circumstances, too.

There are always going to be a lot of factors pushing and pulling at us, and especially in a place like Baltimore, where systemic issues like educational inequality, mass incarceration, poverty, drug addiction, and gentrification are so pervasive, it can feel like we need to give our fates to a political candidate.

No politician is going to change our lives. I love Bernie, but Bernie isn't going to make that much substantive change to what I experience and go through on a daily basis, or what my family goes through on a daily basis. I respect his economics and his policy a lot more than Biden and believe he can make much more change than Biden, but I've been through enough elections to know that politicians don't make that much of a difference in our day-to-day experiences.

That isn't to say that whoever is President doesn't make an impact on the system, because they surely do. But I hate waiting on elections and have decided to turn my phone on airplane mode and the TV off, because I still have to sleep tonight. I still have to go into work tomorrow and teach my kids. Life will still go on after Super Tuesday is over.

I will not allow this election to have power over me. At least not until tomorrow morning, because my day-to-day life and experiences aren't beholden to an election.