Donald Trump is now our president-elect. As far as I know, that isn't changing. Admittedly, I'm not thrilled, but it's not for the initial reasons. Do I want him representing our nation? Not particularly. But I do know that some voters looked at his platform and agreed with it more than Hillary Clinton, and he won. I do believe that once he gets into office he's going to find out all the hoops he's going to have to jump through to do what he wants, and what he's promised the country. So no, my concern isn't really for the term itself (yet, at least). Speaking honestly, the main reason this presidential election scares me is the influence it's had on us as a nation.

After this election, we as a nation find ourselves deeply divided. Hillary vs. Trump has turned into us vs. them for a scarily large number of people. And while this isn't an article intended to bash Mr. Trump, the things he's saying are bringing out the worst in some.

A woman was on her way to pick up her sister when a student came up from behind her and grabbed her hijab, yanking the cloth backwards so that she quite literally couldn't breathe. Fliers advocating violence towards peaceful protesters were found in the bathrooms at Texas State University. People are being found wearing blackface, mocking other races. Meanwhile, students that others believed were Hispanic at DeWitt junior high in Michigan actually couldn't walk to their classes because students had created a wall, blocking the way until teachers came and diffused the situation. People of the LGBTQ community - some who were just beginning to feel like it was becoming safe to be more open about sexuality - are now concerned of what people might to do them all over again despite their victory in marriage equality.

And the influence doesn't stop there. I have a friend on Facebook (whose name I won't put up here for the sake of her privacy) who works at a fairly traditional convenience store. And as anyone who's ever worked with the public knows, there are things we overhear, and not all of them are good. Two older men in the store were discussing Donald Trump, particularly because it was the day before the election. I don't have exact quotes to give here, but the general idea was that they wanted Trump to win the election so he could "get all the freeloaders out and give real Americans their jobs back." Now while I could delve into this, the reason I wanted to bring up the story is because a small African-American girl who was there with her mother couldn't help her outburst:

"I don't want to go to Africa. I've never been there."

To me, it's heartbreaking. In November, a girl her age should be worried about Christmas, not getting deported. The friend who gave me the story also said this: "The most upsetting part is that she heard them say 'real Americans' and she didn't recognize herself as that. That means someone's instilled the idea that because she's black, she's less of an American than the two older white men speaking in that setting." That story really hit home for me, and it is a large reason I'm writing this in the first place. So I started digging.

Another piece of information I discovered was a video on Jorge Ramos' Facebook. He speaks to a group of children about whether or not they were worried about their families being separated if Trump was elected. Several of the boys and girls said yes. They were so scared to lose their moms, dads, and grandparents. One child even told another "you're going to have to get adopted."

This absolutely broke my heart. The riots, the hatred, people pitting themselves against one other to the point of friends tearing each other apart on social media... Some are more sarcastic than others, of course. @ViewFromWise on Twitter, among several other users, are posting famous quotes from past presidents such as Harry Truman's "The buck stops here" alongside Donald Trump's "Grab them by the p*ssy" to show distaste for our president elect.

But regardless of how we fight, passively or actively, we are fighting ourselves. Our children are feeling fear - real fear - because they hear everything we're saying. They hear the hate and the slander. They hear us discuss someone being struck because of the color of their skin, or their gender, or their beliefs.

I understand their fear. Because this election has brought out the worst of us, no matter what side we're on. I just hope we come out of this without completely destroying each other first.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
-Abraham Lincoln