As children we are taught

There are some things that have the ability to break us,
And others that we have the ability to overcome.
Today, more than many other days,
We are seeing what it means
To feel broken, frightened, alone.
We are not children anymore,
We are no longer unaware of the harsh realities of the world we live in
We are not in a bubble
We are adults, seeing adult things, regardless if we are ready for them.
This will not break us.

The election
Was polarizing and difficult.
Was exhausting, emotional.
Was, and is,
Hard for us to comprehend.
The results of the election,
Were even more difficult, emotional, surprising.
They were unexpected.
We as individual people, we as a country, did not see it coming
This will not break us.

The uncertainty, the pain, the fear,
All valid feelings, all understandable mindsets.
We are living in a country,
That voted for a man,
That many find unfit.
That many find a disgrace to American values, a disgrace to what being the “land of the free” means.
It is more than okay to feel this anguish, this uncertainty, this rage.
But is it okay, to punish someone for who they voted for?
Who we voted for does not break us, but dividing ourselves based on anger and hatred does.

Burning an American flag, degrading the country that our people fought so hard to protect and uphold? That will break us.

Thinking everyone who voted for the President Elect represents all of his ideals to their fullest capacity? That will break us.
Thinking that racism and misogyny is acceptable because said individual was elected?
That will also break us.
Thinking that treating anyone differently, or with disrespect and disdain because of their class, the color of their skin, their gender, or their sexual orientation… That will break us.
Love? Acceptance? Collaboration? Those things will not break us-- they will make us.
We can all be allies. We can all be agents of change.
We cannot let the events of the last month break us.
We are better.