It's been a few days since Donald Trump became the president-elect and I still feel crushed and uneasy about it. It's disappointing for many reasons, and I'm scared for what the future holds, but I don't want my hurt to neglect how grateful I am for the history that Hillary Clinton made in this election.
We live in a two-party country, as good or bad as that may be, and prior to Hillary Clinton, a woman had never won a major-party presidential nomination. A woman has never come closer to being President of the United States than Hillary Clinton, and while we all have the right to find the results of the election repulsive, let's not erase the important history that she has just made. We have to continue her legacy and fight for those same values that she based her life's work off of. We have to continue fighting for women like her that dedicate their lives to fighting for us.
In my 20 years I've never seen someone publicly demonized like Hillary Clinton was by republicans and democrats alike. This always confused me, especially because the republican presidential candidate ran his entire campaign on the victimization of others and favored those that have always had power in this country. Despite being ridiculed for literally everything that she has ever said or done, she remained calm and composed. She exerted her energy into the issues and people that she cared about. She didn't let the misogyny that she experienced discourage her. For someone that studies human rights, she is truly an inspiration.
I got to vote for a woman for president. That's something that major-party voters never get to say. I spent the weeks before excitedly campaigning for her and conversing with friends about how excited we were for a woman to finally take the White House. The night before the polls opened I couldn't sleep. The morning of I got decked out in all of my Hillary Clinton gear and danced around my kitchen while listening to inspirational music. Actually voting for her was more emotional than I thought it would be; I thought about my women's history classes and what this would mean for them. I thought about the endless amount of oppression that women and particularly minority women have faced, and I had their struggles in mind as I selected Hillary Clinton for President of the United States. It was one of the most powerful moments of my life that I'll cherish forever.
When I realized Donald Trump was going to win the presidential race, I sobbed. Not teared up or cried, but an uncontrollable sob that lasted for the early hours of November 9th. I was so disappointed that a person who promotes the oppression of others was going to my president. I've never felt this level of discontent before and I know I'll be uneasy for the next four years, but I have something to say before I attempt to move on from the results of this election:
Thank you, Hillary, for giving me something to believe in. Thank you for giving me something so inspirational to fight for. Thank you for continuing to fight for those on the bottom, despite having so many people against you. Thank you for all of the public service that you've done since you were 17 and thank you for never giving up. Thank you for representing those in America who don't tolerant hate. And thank you, Hillary, for going down in our history books as the first woman to ever win a major-party nomination for President of the United States. I'll never forget that moment.
