This upcoming week will be my second time having the honor to vote in the presidential election, and unlike the cheesy excitement, I felt four years ago, this time I anticipate a lot more anxiety when I pull out of my polling place. I may even be too anxious to post the classic and clichéd “I voted” selfie with my sticker. . . maybe. I can openly say this time around I got proactive and began exploring, dissecting and even using my manicured nail to scratch the surface of what goes into the complexity that is doing your research and finding a lesser evil to choose to be the next president of the United States — and boy did these candidates make it overwhelming. This campaign trail has been a roller coaster ride full of dips, loops, highs and most definitely scandalous lows, but when all is said in done in November the candidates (traditionally) accept the results of the elections and the wonderful machine that is democracy chugs along. The candidates will go back to their privileged lives, moving in circles, meeting people, and going to places that many of us will never see and we will be left with the remnants of what the election has exposed.

These primary candidates have put their fingers right on the pulse of what really makes groups tick and played upon them relentlessly. So glaringly different that they have left no room for middle ground, forcing voters to a side and once the side is chosen you are then obligated to promote the caricatured, demonized image of the other; Trump pushing sexist, racist and xenophobic ideologies that would set us back decades and Hillary being the very face of corrupt politicians. Gone are the days when together we, plebeians of everyday America, could laugh and say, “It doesn’t matter who wins, they all lie." Now we fight and condemn our neighbors on behalf of these parties defending and reciting hyperbolic, one-sided, biased, half-truths intent on proving that one lie trumps another. Maybe our parents and grandparents were just as staunchly divided as us but they didn’t have the glaring spotlight of social media to illuminate these drastic differences that weren’t spoken about in polite company. Now it is normal to see people who wouldn’t dare confront or disrespect others in person battle it out in comment sections while spewing garbled facts, sound bytes and highlights they snatched straight from headlines because everyone knows millennials don’t truly read through a whole article.

We’re no longer allowed to politely agree to disagree. This election has pushed us into dichotomous thinking, forcing people on a political crusade, spending their well-deserved Facebook browsing time trying to convert the ignorant, lost, savage sheep that root for the opposite party.

So will we move on from this and gracefully accept the results and the true colors, thoughts, feelings and opinions we learned? Or has this sparked a conversation and opened a door that can’t be closed and now we are going to spend the next few weeks, months or maybe years giving our friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances and random Facebook friends from high school the ultimate side eye.