I vividly remember sitting with some friends at a Chipotle last year, days before our high school graduation, when one of them received a notification from the CNN app letting her know that Donald Trump had announced his candidacy for president. My immediate response was laughing, followed by taking her phone to read the news for myself, and finally commenting something along the lines of, "this has to be some sort of joke."

But here we are, a few months away from the election in November, and Donald Trump is the Republican nominee.

I also remember starting my first year of college and, conversation after conversation, realizing why Bernie Sanders would have my vote if he became the Democratic nominee. He shifted the focus to so many topics that weren't being discussed (or at least weren't being emphasized enough), from social mobility (or lack thereof) and income inequality to making college tuition-free and debt-free. Support for him grew as more and more people came to realize that he was not afraid to bring all the issues to the table and stand by his ideals, regardless of how unpopular they may have been at some point. His advocacy of LGBT rights, women's rights, disability rights, and racial justice hit home for numerous people, young and old.

Yet somewhere down the line, Hillary Clinton was chosen as the Democratic nominee.

If you had told me a couple of years ago that this is how the election season would go the first time I'd be eligible to vote, I don't think I'd have believed you. (My faith in America to prevent someone like Trump to make it this far was clearly too great back then.) I, like many others who were 'feeling the Bern', are a bit disappointed with our current options. I definitely feel as though my first vote in a U.S. Presidential Election is a default one, not one that I am making after some deliberation and consideration of the platforms of candidates from both parties. And why is that? Because we are not being offered two candidates who are qualified to serve as this country's president, who deserve to win this election, whom this country will benefit from. Only one party has managed to offer that, and so with that candidate I stand. And it's about time other Bernie supporters accept the situation as it is and stand with him to stop Trump by voting for Hillary.

Even though I don't feel like my first vote is one I entirely agree with, or one that I feel I had much choice in making, I do understand its significance in this election. I've heard many people say that they believe they are dealing with choosing the lesser of two evils when it comes time to vote. But at the end of the day, what's important is that rather than not cast a vote at all (or cast a vote for a third party candidate to spite Hillary for making it this far rather than Bernie -- which won't help anyone), we must do what we can to prevent Trump from taking power. And in this case, that means voting for Hillary. If everyone who thinks they're doing a service by not voting (whether it's because they don't realize the importance one vote makes or because they are still living in a world in which Bernie might become the nominee) realizes that voting is the only way to make it out of this election alive, then we have a real chance of preserving this country's future.

It's time to cut the BS and realize that Trump has a serious chance of winning — which is unfortunately very pleasing news to many, many Americans. I could go on and on about how unqualified he is -- his lack of reliability, his bad temper and inability to let any offensive comment directed at him slide, his immaturity -- and how awful he would be for our country. Rather than promoting a sense of unity, he claims that he can fix America's problems himself and promotes racism, xenophobia, homophobia, bigotry, and sexism. Does that sound like someone you want to lead our country? Because it sure as hell doesn't to me.

And through this whole mess, it's easy to miss that Hillary actually has a pretty good platform, which would not be as progressive as it is today without Bernie. But don't forget that with the Republican Party holding a Senate majority and House majority, having Hillary in the White House won't result in many of her planned changes unless we vote to give her the support she needs in Congress.

So follow Obama's advice: don't boo, vote.