Tuesday night, my job aired the news on every television screen in the restaurant. I had voters coming in for dinner after the election, I saw all the "I Voted" stickers and thanked everyone for doing their civil duties. I had so much hope as the results trickled in early Tuesday evening, it was too close, Clinton would pull through, I was sure of it. At work, I waited on one table that stuck out to me, a Latina woman and her daughter, with their eyes locked fearfully on the screen. When I asked about dessert, she told me no, she already felt sick. She told me how she was scared for not only her future, but her daughter's as well; my heart sank as I saw the fear in her eyes. I went to bed that night with a broken heart, as the election hadn't even come to a conclusion but I couldn't stay up much later than 2 AM, Trump had won roughly 260 electoral college votes at that point. That's when I began fearing for my nation, that's when I began losing the hope I had held onto for so long.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I cried. I mourned the loss of freedoms in my country and I grieved for my rights, for the rights of my friends and family of color, the LGBT youth, Muslims, and fellow women. I feared for my friends of immigrant families. I'm hearing too many people tell me that I need to deal with it and get over it. Too many people are comparing this to past elections saying, "This didn't happen when Bush won," or "Have some respect, he is our president." No, he's not my president, because this issue runs much deeper than Trump and Hillary, it's the fact that our nation is divided. half of our country are racist, sexist, and xenophobic, while the other half are fearing for their lives. It's only been a few days and our country is already in an uproar, in a few short days we've taught America that racism and sexual assault is okay, that we don't care about the eight trans youth that killed themselves Wednesday. Wednesday morning, as I was leaving my house, a couple of color was walking down my street shouting, "F*CK DONALD TRUMP," it felt good to join them, but I only did so to mask my fear.

Wednesday morning, I also woke up to a text message from a close friend, a person of color, who stated, "I'm scared, I don't want to die." This hit me harder than I had imagined it could, because this was becoming a very real possibility. He told me how he was content and worry free when he voted, because a Trump presidency didn't seem like a reality at that time. As he checked CNN, the results became undeniable. He told me how he was afraid of enslavement and death, like many other people of color before him faced, especially with the support of the KKK Trump has gained. He told me, "I would rather die fighting than become a slave." His fear turned into anger, and anger into passion when he realized how many people are on his side, and how many people want to fight for him and with him during this time.

Later that same day, I received a text message from another friend of mine, a female to male transgender, also scared for his life, he asked me how I was holding up, when I told him how heartbroken I was and how upset I was, he told me something very important, "Feel what you need to feel for however long you need to feel it. Things are awful right now but please know we're never ever going to stop fighting. I love you." Again, I had never envisioned a world where I would have to fight for rights for my friends and I. In this past eight years during Barack Obama's presidency, our country has made incredible strides, and it's about to all be lost. When I asked my friend, R, how he felt about Donald Trump stating transgender people can use whichever bathroom they felt comfortable using, he told me, "If he didn't have a vice president that wanted me dead, maybe I would consider that an outreach. He's a monster and an absolute catastrophic candidate for the trans community." He told me how the day after everything, someone thought it was okay to refer to him as a "f*cking queer," he told me how he was scared for the children of our country, he told me, "I don't want to see the most vulnerable members of society hurting." But he also left me with a promising message, "It's okay to be hurting, to be angry, to grieve. But at the end of it all, we need to pull together and fight, and we need to love."

I have friends who are gay and friends who are immigrants and they're scared too. My friend, B, a homosexual male, talked to me about how scary conversion therapy is, and how fearful it is that it's becoming a reality for him again. He told me how he can't be out in public without the fear of homophobic comments and he expressed his fears of losing his recently gained right to marry as well. He talked to me about how we need to stick together and fight to keep our rights. Another friend, an immigrant from Russia told me how surreal it felt that Trump was even able to run, much less have supporters and win the election. She told me how this is the first time she's felt unsafe as an immigrant in our country.

I've seen numerous women talking about birth control at this point in time, something that's always been available for myself, because my body needs the hormones it provides, like many other women in our nation. Instead of the pill, we're almost being forced to get an IUD put in place, a form of birth control that lasts 3-5 years; we're literally changing our lifestyles to have birth control that will outlast a presidential term. My grandmother called me crying, she told me about how scary it was when she was younger and how many young women she knew of that went through unsafe abortions, and she's appalled that her granddaughters' right to choose are going to be taken from them; she's fearing we're going to be in the position of so many women she witnessed when she was younger. I'm not only afraid for myself and my rights, but those of my two younger sisters, and those of every other woman's in our nation. As a survivor of sexual assault, my attacker walks free, and I know under Trump's administration, there are going to be so many more attackers walking free - and most importantly, one in the oval office. While Hillary Clinton reminded young girls, "...you are powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams..." Trump reminded us, "It really doesn't matter what they write, as long as you've got a beautiful and young piece of ass." - Is this really a world we want to raise our daughters in?

Although to many this may seem like a time of uproar in our country, we need to see it as a time of solidarity instead. Minorities and allies are sticking together to fight for their cause, and this time of protests is a time of love and acceptance between these communities. Even though for many Americans, their country may be seeing dark times, we need to join together and we need to be an ally for those who need it, and we need to fight together to keep our rights. Not just for us, but for future generations, and for humanity in general.