As of 2016, people have completely lost sight of things. They have forgotten what is important. Our two primary parties are at a civil war trying to be the best party and not trying to compromise and be the best our country needs them to be. They can’t decide what is best for the country. As a country, we are being divided based on race, our identifying political party and gender identity. We have lost sight every time an American, one of our own people, dies. It is lost amongst the number of fatalities a day. We as Americans have become a number in a population instead of a person. Among the rivalry of America, you have half of the population that is concerned with one thing and the other half who disregards the problem. As told by Will McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels on "The Newsroom", “First thing to solving a problem is recognizing there is one.”

As a country, the United States of America has many, many problems. A recent issue is that Target openly stated that any person who identifies with what they look like can go into that bathroom. Now at one point, I thought that most people go into the bathroom to well, you know, actually use the bathroom. But many people have an issue with this. Despite the many years transgender people have been doing this, all of a sudden it’s a public issue that hasn’t been addressed. The number one thing most people have said is that they don’t want a man dressed as a chick to go rape my daughter in the bathroom. Look, I get that you have that concern, but how many times can you honestly say that has happened? There was a period of my life where I lost my best friend and I was having a terrible life. Many people had told me that they would pray for me, but at the time, that had little affect on me. I waited for someone from back home to come visit me, but the wait was never over. I wanted someone to be there for me -- as in literally and physically there beside me. Growing up, I had an extreme for a certain community that was learned by my peers. But when I moved away to another city and away from the life, I found change and something I never saw before. I saw that this particular community were just people who had everything going for them and they just wanted to live their lives. This community is known as the LGBTQ community.

At college in another city, I suddenly became friends with a ton of people who were just fun to be around and genuinely cared for other people. There were a few people that could tell I was hiding the hurt I felt from losing family and friends through death, and they didn’t just say I will pray for you and leave and go about their day. Some stayed and my cold heart filled with hate had started to break. My heart was opened up and friendships formed that I hope will last a life time. I found out that these people have issues too and they are human beings just like the rest of us. I felt all the guilt of hating the person for who they loved because of who they were. In a world full of hate, these people were there and helped mold me into a better person. One day, I finally told one of these friends how I originally had hated people like them (gay) and how much I changed from that person. I’m glad I did too. It’s a shame living a hateful life, especially for no good reason. After that I felt like everything was lifted and gone away. I became a different person that day -- seeing people as people and not an abomination or anything less than human. As of 2015, I learned something about one friend who was completely different then what I thought they were.

In 2015, I learned that one of my friends that I met through another friend was a transgender. At first, I was in shock because I never expected this or saw it coming. For about a week, I was still in shock because I just didn’t know who this person was and now I did know. But here is the thing, it doesn’t matter. We have become great friends and every time we cross paths it’s a joyful reunion. This person loves people. I can see it by the way my friend treats people. This person is full of love, and exactly what the world needs is love. We have to stop treating people like we know better and are better, because in fact, we are not. Back to my friend, I don’t want to know who they “really are” or, I should say, “were.” To me it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to know because I’m afraid one day I’ll wake up and treat them like a lesser person. As Americans, we need to see other people as Americans last, first we need to see them as a person. We are all the same. We were all designed by God. I know it may sound like a cliché, but the world needs love. If we can see people first and love them second, then maybe we can get somewhere. But until then, we will remain at war with ourselves and with each other.