I first figured out who Donald Trump was in early 2015 while watching "The Celebrity Apprentice." I had always heard of his name and brand, but never had a face in my mind. And, no, this isn’t when I realized how sinister he was or saw his true colors that came out during the election season. He honestly appeared to be a regular guy on a reality TV show I’d only watch for one episode and then forget. Just like Ben Carson, the man who inspired me to dream larger and see my true passion for medicine before I saw his uselessness in politics, Donald Trump unveiled his complete ignorance when he became a 2016 presidential candidate.

I was at my friend’s house to study for finals, but as the procrastinators we are, the study group decided to watch TV. Someone suggested watching Trump’s presidential announcement speech. As he uttered his infamous lines about Mexican immigrants, anger arose from everyone in the room (we were all Latino). I was shocked that he had the nerve to speak about my family members and friends like that. Following his comments, the news covered every angle of story. There was a ton of backlash. However, another group emerged that shared these beliefs and for the first time in my life, I saw that there were people who truly hatred my whole family. I was stripped of my feeling of safety and felt that I wasn't truly accepted in this country. The TV star was truly a monster in my heart for that.

As time went on, new communities were added to the list of people dehumanized by Trump. He is a man who has no issue with disrespecting women. In his mind, women are nothing more than objects of beauty, and if you don’t fall within his idea of attractiveness, you are worthless. What a contrast to his counterpart Hillary Clinton, a woman who is empowering millions of girls to see that we don’t exist to only please men. As a young woman preparing to go to one of the best colleges in the country, Mr. Trump’s ideas enrage me. I worked my butt off for years to get into Amherst. I’m willing to do that for another intense 10+ years to pursue medicine. But if I’m not "beautiful," it means nothing in his eyes. I can’t believe he wants to follow up Obama, who has pushed for gender equality for eight years. He then waged a battle with Muslim people by instilling fear through ridiculous stereotypes. Although I have only been on this Earth for less than a third of his life, I have had enough life experience to know that the majority of Muslims have no hate for this country. And when you think he can't get any lower and degrading, he accepts the challenge. Next thing you know, he’s at a rally mocking a reporter with disabilities. Every time I see the clip, I have to question if it's real. It makes me scared for my own little brother with cerebral palsy that this man with such low morals who thinks it's amusing to bully people like that could be our leader. He tops all this off by finally demonstrating his true, direct racism. He actually believes that a judge couldn’t do his job because of his Mexican heritage and utters these words in an interview. That means that I, a fellow Mexican American, am inferior due to my ethnicity. That is the ultimate act of hate against my humanity.

The night I lost all my hope was the last day of the RNC, a.k.a., Trump night. You would think he’d try to change up his tactics to try to show he can be the president of all of us, not just white males. Instead, the speech is an accumulation of all the hate he’s been giving to his audience in one night. I broke.

I cry tears of frustration because this is beyond disagreements on policies. This is beyond conservative versus liberal mindsets. He is disagreeing with my identity. The Trump presidency would be four years of discrimination and horror. However, I don’t blame all of this fear on Trump, though he does deserve some credit. If he didn’t have so many people in this country with same ideologies as him, the campaign would have been a joke. He isn’t the only monster that exists. If you vote for Trump, you need to admit that ultimately you’re privileged and selfish. Don’t say that you’re voting purely for commitment to the party or for the financial policies because it doesn’t matter. Siding with him means you couldn’t care less about anybody that would be terrorized during a Trump era because it’s just easier to be ignorant. I plead with you, don’t vote for him. Apart from being a heartless man, he has no experience for the job, which would sound sketchy to any employer. If he was at least a millionaire and has held public office like Michael Bloomberg, then maybe he’d be considered a viable candidate. Plus, he has shown he is more of an impulse kind of guy (his advisers were actually afraid he’d tweet out his VP way too early). Is this the man you want in charge of nuclear weapons, a deadly and destructive force with no delete button like Twitter has?

A while ago, I wrote an

article that seemed to say that you should vote for Hillary because she isn't Trump. After a lot more research on her, I realized that a vote for her is more than choosing a lesser of two evils. It’s choosing change. Hillary Clinton, while not perfect, has proven that she is willing to bend for the country’s wishes. The views she has on policy are pretty close to Bernie’s, but her plans and strategies to accomplish her goals are so thought out that no other candidate can compete with her preparedness. She will fight for everyone to do great in this country. She is a history maker. She is qualified. And if America realizes how disgusting Trump is and how perfect she is for this job, she will be the first female POTUS. Hopefully it will be the first of many steps towards many people finally feeling safe and truly united in a country they call home.