I know we’re all tired of hearing about the election, but in light of what happened and what’s going to happen over the next few years, there’s something crucial that we need to be saying. We can protest and riot and fight all we want, but that won’t do us any good. Regardless of how any of us feel about the outcome of this election, we can’t change it. We cannot go back in time and do things any differently than we did. So what can we do? Can we merely accept the choice that we made and the consequences our country will face because of it? Yes, we can. We have to.

At this point, we can no longer debate who would’ve been the best person to run our country, because we can’t go back and undo the mess that we’ve made. We can’t argue about what we need to do, because we can’t just fill out our ballots and make a change anymore. So, do we protest and speak our minds? As free people, we could, but where would that get us? Fighting and rioting at this point serves only to make us hate each other for our differences. We’ve already been doing that for months, and we can see how much good it’s done.

The only thing we can do at this point is unite and love each other. Those who are happy about the outcome need to show love to all those who aren’t, letting them know that they are still an important part of the nation, even if they don’t agree. Those who are not happy need to accept that their candidate (or, more likely, their party) has lost, and that they must accept the hand democracy has dealt them.

As for those that are scared by the outcome, I’m sorry. You should never have to live in a country where you worry for your life or your freedom, especially when that country prides itself on being a place of liberty and happiness. While I can’t put myself in your shoes, I will do everything I can to make you feel safe and to show you that this election doesn’t change my feelings about you. Hopefully, the rest of the nation can unite to ensure your safety and comfort.

We’ve spent too long hating each other. It has to end now. If it doesn’t, the country’s going to be in a bad place very soon. I think we can all agree that the next four years are going to be rough, but look at everything our country has survived. As long as we stand together, we can face anything. We all need to set aside our differences and agree to make sure that we don’t let our situation get any worse, and that we don’t let an election like this happen again.

We can fight the government for change in the system, but we have to change ourselves first. We have to accept one another and try to appreciate everything we have in common and everything we don’t. The numbers and our common sense have shown that the next few years will be hard, but we can make it a little easier on ourselves by standing together. After all, if we don’t unite, are we really the great United States?

I’m young. I don’t know all the details of what’s going on in the world. I can’t make a huge change on my own. All I can do, and all I can ask others to do, is to stop fighting, to show our love. Because at the end of the day, we’re all Americans. It’s time we started acting like it.