I was in fifth grade during the Obama and McCain election of 2008. To me, this election was the most exciting thing in the world. My teachers spent most of the fall teaching us about the importance of politics and why we, as citizens, need to exercise our right to vote.

I am so grateful that at such a young age I had teachers who had such high political efficacy and inspired me to be so eager to vote. That being said, I patiently waited eight years until the election of 2016 where I would finally be 18 and old enough to elect the next President of The United States.

My excitement of choosing the next leader of The United States quickly died out as I realized my two options were actually Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both were equally as terrible. However, I just could not let my 10-year-old-self down and just not vote in the election. In a way, I felt like if I had not voted I would have been letting the country down as well. So, I did what most Americans did in November 2016 and voted for what I felt was the lesser of the two evils.

I voted for Donald Trump.

I know that this is a website that has more than its fair share of liberal readers so I am well aware of the fact that I am about to be eaten alive... but hear me out.

I did not want to vote for Hillary. I want a female president just as bad as everyone else does but I didn't necessarily want it to be Hillary. To this day, I will stand by the fact that Hillary is not trustworthy and was simply doing anything in her power to get votes. Even though I regret voting for Donald Trump, I never in a million years would have voted for Hillary Clinton either.

So, having always been a little bit more on the Republican side, I voted for Donald Trump. I figured that even though I didn't necessarily love him, at least my party would be represented in the White House. Also, I didn't think that things would get as bad as they've gotten. I heard the racist things that Trump said during his campaign and I knew that what he was saying was wrong, but I never thought he would actually act on these things. I mean, what president actually sticks to the plans that they promise in their campaigns?

I knew that the media was working so hard to portray him in a negative way and I found peace in thinking that he was being victimized and wasn't actually as bad as they were making him seem. Lastly, I believed that he was purposely leaning far right to attract more voters by forcing moderates to pick a side. I, as well as many experts on politics, believed that as soon as the election was over, he would calm down and work better with both political parties to improve his ratings.

We all know now, however, that none of that happened. I will give President Trump props because he has been one of the few presidents who has stayed true to his word about what he will do when he's in office, no matter how damaging it's been to our country. He has done everything in his power to keep immigrants out and to oppress those of the LGBTQ+ communities, just as he once promised he would.

Therefore, I am sorry. I am sorry that I contributed to the problem by electing someone so full of hate and bigotry. I am sorry that I was optimistic about Donald Trump at one time and believed that he could help fix our economy. Instead, he has almost completely destroyed our country in a few short months.

And for that, I am sorry.