Over 1,000+ phone calls made to local registered democrats, independents, and undecideds. Standing on busy streets and asking every passerby if they're registered to vote at their current location. Going door-to-door and giving local democrats the useful literature necessary to vote democrat down to the ticket at their local precinct. I've been yelled at, hung up on, given nasty looks, blatantly rejected, and ignored. On the same token, I have received unconditional and undying support from campaign organizers, from volunteers, from politicians and political activists, and I've personally seen the power of what a determined group of people can accomplish. The good, the bad, and the ugly is what made my experience with The North Carolina Democrat Committee's grassroots campaign worth while.

For some, election night was a glorious occasion. For others, it was hard to swallow. Tuesday night was bleak. Unbreakable optimism and passing words of "yeah, she's going to win this" faded into a despondent, even a hopeless outlook. Sitting in my dorm room with my roommate and a couple of friends, it became quiet. The silent frustration and fear spoke volumes. After Trump took Ohio, and soon after, Iowa; I was the first person to muster the words:

"He's going to win."

My words pierced the ongoing silence, but it continued nonetheless. I didn't say this as a way of empowering our existent fears and to lower our hopes further; I think I was waiting for someone to prove me wrong. I was waiting for numbers to change, for pollsters to recognize a historical break in this election of Hillary Clinton taking the cake at the last minute, for things to make a complete 360. Unfortunately, that never came. I looked at my distraught and frustrated roommate, looked blankly ahead, closed my laptop to go to bed, and tossed and turned until sunrise.

I knew what was ahead of us, but I didn't know at the same time. I knew that there was going to be a divide. I knew that both sides were going to criticize one another for their feelings and how they express them. The problem that I now saw was not exactly Donald Trump, but the uprising and the discriminatory attitude in which he had promoted during is campaign. Donald Trump, while in office, could very well not do a single thing he said, such as build a wall on Mexico's border, or deport millions of people who have already made a living in this country. However, a population of people agreed with his rhetoric, and they have taken it and ran with it on their own terms.

I am scared. I am scared for myself and my future, I am scared for my friends and fellow millennials who are members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and/or of any minority group, and/or are women. Though there were hard times while working on the grassroots level of the Clinton Campaign, I saw kindness. I saw hope. I saw determination and the degree to which local citizens wanted peace for a cause much bigger than themselves. I saw faithful volunteers come in every week and know that the only incentive involved and needed in doing so much community work is a Clinton presidency in 2017. We did not achieve that just yet. However, as an organization, we rose to the challenge. As an organization, we became stronger through a feat that we did not meet this time. The outcome of this election is potentially scarring, but we did all that we could do as local citizens. It would be too difficult to forget the work that has been done with some of the most professional and determined humans beings I will probably ever have the privilege to meet in this lifetime. This organization has given me hope for future peace, for prosperity, and for the equal protection of every single human being in this country. Thank you, NCDP.