I have always been very optimistic about everything in my life, but the election results came as a daunting nightmare even to me. I am not American, but I will be here for few more years. And as a Person of Color, and a non citizen here, this most certainly makes my life more vulnerable that it already is. Mr. Trump won. The ugly joke and the worst nightmare of the year came to life. The fact that I have to address him with respect now, as Mr. President, despite his whole campaign being about disrespecting me and people like me just became my reality. How do I move on from this? How do I make sense of this election?

Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator

I love Politics, and I have been following this election since its inception. When Mr. Trump first announced his candidacy, I laughed a lot. Not just me, no one took him seriously--even the ones who ended up voting for him later. His lack of political acumen and diplomacy was cringe-worthy, and his ideologies, sickening. What did he know about running a country, let alone one of the "most powerful countries of the world" ? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. The only thing he brought to the election was an entertainment value for all of us to laugh at and mock. He certainly made SNL,Today Show and Weekly show much funnier. There was no chance of Donald Drumph winning, right? Yet as the months passed, he kept winning the primaries and people's support. Democrats might have started losing hope on the election night, but I started losing hope right when the people I knew and loved started voicing their support for him. He was not even elected, and it had already started affecting me in a community and personal level. Mr. Trump validated all the racist and sexist sentiments, fear, and xenophobia boiling in people here, and that made me and people like me a target of their hate. I was already losing my position in the community. I was already being dehumanized. The working class people who were tired of the institution and government's disregard for them and their situation now had people like me to blame. "A non white, non Christian, alien who came here to steal their share of reward. "For me, he was a privileged and racist garbage who did not have any concrete policies, and all he could ever say was "walls," "Mexican criminals." "Muslims." "ISIS," China,""Obama," over and over again(Most of which was statistically/historically inaccurate) But for them, he was a savior. A break from the establishment. A leader who finally understood them.

But amidst the hateful rhetoric, me, and people like me, could still see some hope: Bernie Sanders. He spoke for the underprivileged, middle class workers, women, people of color, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ, and even Palestinians and Syrians. His "make love not war" idea and his simplicity made him our favorite "socialist."The videos of him opposing every bad decision U.S has ever made, gave those of us who were tired of imperialism and neo colonialism which U.S government holds dear a new hope for American politics .But sadly, he did not win. Hillary Clinton did.

Hilary Clinton, the woman who I have been reading about all year, and the woman I despised with burning passion. Reports came out of rigged democratic elections;DNC email hacks showed the officials like Deborah Wasserman Schultz favoring Clinton and sabotaging Sanders' campaign. Yet, in fear of Trump presidency, I quickly started voicing my support for the candidate whose ethics I had seriously been questioning. Clinton had a long history of corruption: from keeping a private email server to involvement in a coup in Honduras and assassination of Berta Cacers. Nothing about her was appealing except for the fact that she actually had policies, and has been in power for very long time. Also, there was Supreme Court as well.The fear of republicans putting a conservative there who might undo all the progress that has been made in eight years was very real. And still is. Our unenthusiastic and skeptical support of Hillary did win her the popular votes, but her years of political experience did not help her win the support of Electoral college. I am devastated by Mr. Trump's win, but I never believed Hillary Clinton deserved to be democratic nominee either

While I can never come in terms with the reasons people give for voting Trump after all he has said and done about immigrants, Muslims, women and everybody who is not cis-gender, heterosexual, patriarchal white men in power, I cannot deny my own hypocrisy either. While I still believe that Hillary Clinton would have made much "better" leader than Trump any-day, I highly doubt if she would've kept her word about everything considering how fast she changes her stance about everything to gain votes and favors.

The aftermath of election, thus, has been very hard. People in positions of power have the liberty to move on like nothing happened, but for the minorities and the marginalized groups, everything's at stake. So, people who voted from him, How do you face people who have to now live in constant fear of their family getting separated/ their parents being deported more than ever? How can you tell them that everything is going to be okay when Mr. Trump wants to take all their dreams away, dehumanize them and label them as "illegals" and "terrorists"? How can human beings be "illegal"? How can you have the audacity to say it's a victory for everyone when his Vice President has history of misogyny and homophobia? How do I fight for women rights when the leader, Mr. President, himself has been saying "abortion deserve some form of punishment," and "grab women" by their genitals without their consent? Mr Trump has demonized an entire faith, and now people are scared of identifying themselves as Muslims.They are scared to wear hijab. Soon after the election, my mom called me, scared, and asked me never to write about Mr. Trump again. The fear is very real for us and to come to us saying it's unnecessary, is disregarding our realities.And if you have been following any other news outlets other than FOX NEWS, you must have seen the increase in hate crimes. How is he a president for everyone when he utterly disregards and dehumanizes our identities and labels us "them"?

If you voted for him because you did not believe that he is a bigoted man, then instead of coming to me and telling me that my fear is unnecessary, be accountable for his actions and the actions of people that he has validated. If you are not one of them, prove it. In the United States. People of Color are always expected to make their patriotism and allegiance to their country more visible, more prominent, and louder than White people to be convincing. A white man can call country "not great" and be elected a president, but if a person of color does that it is labelled as "unpatriotic" and "hateful." When we march against the injustices, we are " jobless thugs", and when we protest against it peacefully by sitting, we are "unpatriotic," "insensitive" and "spoiled." You have been setting standards for what we should do and don't, maybe now it's time for us to set standards for you. You need to prove that you condemn any kind of bigotry committed towards the minorities.If you love U.S, then you should also love everyone who contributes to it everyday to make it what it is today. Show your love! Prove it!

The institutional racism was always their to subjugate us under your orthodoxy. Maybe it was hard for you to see that from your privileged position, but now that the veil has started uncovering, and Mr. President himself has made it blatant as well, I hope you will finally acknowledge the problem and understand our position. Maybe then we will be united.