I was going to write an article about how much I hated Donald Trump. I was going to write about how I watched the election with tears in my eyes. I was going to write about the nightmare I had about losing my freedom, losing my rights as a human because my dad is an immigrant and because I was born with a uterus. I was going to write about how heartbreaking it was to listen to my queer friends cry because of the very idea of conversion therapy and the repeal of same-sex marriage protection. I was going to write about how people of black and Hispanic ethnicity are now being denied services in racist states, are being yelled at for things they did not do, just because the racist motives of certain Trump supporters are now justified since he won the election. I was going to write about how women are being harassed by men because now they feel justified in their sexist motives to scream "I'm gonna grab her by the pussy!" and laugh like sexual assault is a joke. I was going to throw a fit because Donald Trump is the next presumptive president of the United States and I have never felt so hopeless as an individual, as someone who is mixed race, as a queer person, as a woman, as a working-class child, as a human.

But then I took a deep breath.

There's only so much spite and grief a person can hold. You can only be in denial for so long. Donald Trump is the next president of the United States, at least when the electoral college casts their vote mid-December, and all of those people who are trending the hashtag #NotMyPresident are wrong. He IS our next president, and we better damn well get used to it.

I'll tell you now that I voted for Clinton. In the primaries, I voted for Sanders. I was just like a lot of young democrats thinking about everyone's civil liberties instead of economics. I was thinking about our domestic protection instead of the disestablishment of "the system" that both Sanders and Trump represented in their campaign. I was so focused on Clinton that I wasn't sure if I was voting for her or against Trump and his policies. I'm still not sure.

My aunt voted for Trump. She is the most feminist person I have ever had close contact with, going so far as to say I should go to an all-women college because I didn't need men in my life. When #BlackLivesMatter started up, she was in favor of the movement, ranting about how we should all have respect for each other at the dinner table during one of her visits. And yet she still voted for Trump, not because she was racist or sexist, but because she liked his policies. And that's what I genuinely trust in the majority of Trump supporters: that they trust his policies in tax cuts and making jobs, perhaps even half of his immigration policy. This is what is appealing to most, and there is nothing wrong with that.

But there's also a downside to the people who he appealed to. Trump represents an escape from the norm, escape from the system. He's anti-political correctness and says what he wants to say without thinking of the implications of his words. And because he is now our next president, people are adopting his way of speaking. It doesn't matter if he's racist or not, sexist or not, xenophobic or not. None of that matters now. What matters is that he appealed to the racists, the sexists, and the xenophobes. And their justification in their non-politically-correct motives is what hurts me the most. I don't fear that Trump will make a law commanding my family to move back to Puerto Rico despite the fact that my mom and I are natural born citizens. I fear his supporters that will deny me jobs and services because of my ancestry and threaten me with police action for crimes I did not commit. I do not fear Trump shutting down Planned Parenthood. I fear his supporters throwing eggs at me, screaming at me, threatening me for ever daring to enter a Planned Parenthood branch in the first place, even though I have never had sex and just wanted birth control pills to control my period. I do not fear Trump legalizing conversion therapy. I fear his supporters that would put children through that hell in the first place.

That's not to say that I believe every one of his supporters would do that (see above with my aunt). But the scary part is the amount of people that would resort to these things just because Trump was not politically correct, and definitely not polite. Clinton supporters are not pure, I would be hypocritical if I said that. Everyone has it in them to be violent and anti-politically correct. But this is what Trump stood for, for better or for worse, and these are the ramifications among the minority of voters before the guy even takes office. That's wild.

But no matter what, no matter who you supported, there is no excuse for being violent. There is no excuse to act differently just because your president got elected. Telling a black girl to sit at the back of a bus in the year 2016 isn't funny. However, there is no excuse for lashing out at friends or family who are respectful of your beliefs and you as a person, even if they voted Trump. Many democrats have cut ties with Trump-supporting friends because the enmity felt towards Trump is so strong that friends some have had for many years are now enemies. Not to mention the protests are becoming so huge that people can't get to work, do their jobs, and get paid. They may just be more of a hassle than they're worth. And while it promises to be peaceful, with protests that large, fights are bound to break out soon enough. These tensions are dividing the American people--hell, I don't think America has been this divided over something since 2000 when Al Gore got the popular vote but lost the election because it was that close. This election is no different, with Clinton having won the popular vote as well, by only 600,000 votes nationwide. The country is literally almost split 50/50.

This is why we must work together. They say in times of crisis, we must overcome out differences. This is not a crisis of a bad presidency, it is a crisis among the people. It is a crisis of tension and hatred for one another. It is a crisis about prejudice and quick, irrational thinking turning us against our brethren before we had a chance to talk. It is important to work with people to get messages across, and the message would be so much stronger if the United States were, well, united. Don't create a divide between people through violence, regardless of who you voted for. Clinton supporters, work with the Trump supporters, and vice versa. Listen to them, every last one of them. Understand them. If they are the scumbag minority that feel like their racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic motives are justified in the name of being anti-politically correct? Prove them wrong with love. Do not prove them right with violence. Do not let their beliefs be justified.

In times of crisis, we work together to get through. Dividing will make things worse. There is strength in numbers.

But most of all, stop protesting. Nobody is wrong for existing. Nobody is wrong for accepting a job that they applied for and acquired fairly. Trump is not in office yet. Besides encouraging his most extreme supporters, he has done nothing wrong for the entire country. He is not the enemy. The enemy is our own prejudice.

I don't think I will ever come to like him. But I will not stand for protesting over nothing. If and when he passes a bill that affects me negatively or my rights as a human being are infringed upon, I will be standing outside of the White House throwing the first stone.

Until then, I wait with quiet tolerance. And I suggest you do too.