I am in fear, and I believe many of us are.

I always thought that Donald Trump's campaign was a joke, that there was no possible way that a man this evil and awful could make it this far. Then he did, and here I am filling out my mail-by-vote ballot dreading my decision.

Hilary? Again, how did she make it this far? She's a woman and trust me I am a feminist but when it comes to the United States we still unfortunately have the mindset that women are obviously weaker than men, and how could we expect a woman who is a liar and untrustworthy to run our country.

Everyone repeats that we are picking our poison and it's truly unfortunate that it has come down to this, that this election has inevitably come down to hate. How can I talk to my friends and family about this election without getting frustrated? How can I still convince people to vote even though they lost all of their hope in our political system?

I can't. Inevitably I have grown up helping people and finding the good. Everyone thinks that their opinion is the right one, and I will admit I am just like everyone else. I believe that both of my parents raised me to be right minded and the best person I could possibly be. Then again I also grew up in a small town in California, so this automatically made me feel liberal.

Yet growing up I think most of our parents told us to never talk about religion or politics at school just because it often caused controversy. So of course I never did, because in the past elections I was never involved due to not being able to vote. So when my friends ask me upfront who I voted for I hesitate because I am nervous for their reaction, whether they will be upset or supportive I really don't want to know. And maybe they learned early on to not talk about it, and maybe I should feel comfortable talking about this election, but I still am not. Even knowing that by the end of this week we will know who our future leader will be I am still completely squirming in my seat like a 12 year old.

But I voted. I chose neither of the two and I voted. I voted for propositions and I voted. It made me feel like an adult, a sort of stepping stone in that this was one of the decisions I got to make completely on my own, no help from my family or friends. I may have been swayed through media, yet so is everyone else. Where else are we supposed to get our information from? A nice cup of tea with Hilary? I don't think so.

So I made my choice and I feel great. I was afraid, but unlike others I didn't make this into a joke, unfortunately I don't see the next four years of my life as a joke. They're actually probably some of the most critical due to the fact that I will be finishing college and finding a teaching job.

So I voted and I felt like I made some type of difference for my community and country. Even if my vote towards Gary Johnson only makes him grab 9% of the National vote I am okay knowing that I actually tried to do something. There are friends of mine who aren't even trying to make some type of impact. And of course we all learned that the electoral college is a very sneaky way of your votes "not counting," but did you even know that there are propositions you can vote for? There are small differences and changes you can make in your community even if you don't want to vote for a president. Whether you understand our political system or not, you cannot just easily brush it off or ignore it, because once you stop living off your parents and start paying taxes you will wish you had voted in that last election, or at least payed a little attention.

So go vote. If you are registered do something with your vote. I don't care if you are a Republican, Democrat or undecided. Whether you support Hillary, Trump, Johnson or Stein, your vote and opinion matters.