There are a few things you should know about me.
First, I’m a naturally anxious person. By naturally anxious I mean therapy and medication have been essential parts of my life in recent years.
Secondly, I love civic engagement. Bless anyone who has ever endured an election season with me. I’m the type to ask if you’ve registered to vote and then help you build a plan to find a polling station come election day – or find a mailbox to send in an absentee ballot.
As you can probably imagine, then, the combination of these things left me reeling from the results of the 2024 presidential election.
I’m not the only one.
The morning after the election I woke up tired – some part of me knew what had happened even if it wasn’t my mind. If I’d had more energy, I would’ve cried. Instead, however, my unrest manifested as a desire to lay in bed for the foreseeable future – today, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe the next month.
I didn’t stay in bed, though. I got up, went to class, and by the end of the day was hit by the uncomfortable realization that I would need to do this day after day until it got easier. Politics aren’t going away, neither are the results of this race, and that is difficult.
In the aftermath of a series of contentious and redefining elections, it’s hard to see the path forward or to imagine the future in a positive light.
What comes next?
Where do we go now?
And the answer is: we don’t go anywhere.
Now is the time we must stay and work for our communities. We donate: time, money, energy. We advocate: for ourselves, our towns, our loved ones. We work: for our families, our neighbors, our world.
The coming administration will be unpredictable. In the past, we’ve seen them actively work against the interests of the many for the sake of the few.
It’s upsetting to see the responsibility of social change foisted upon the citizens rather than assumed by the leaders – a pattern we know all too well. However, this doesn’t mean individuals don’t have the power to alter life as we know it.
There is a long history of people’s movements changing the course of history.
People are the ones who banded together to march for Women’s Suffrage, for Civil Rights, for gay rights, for worker’s rights. It is people who continue marching for Black Lives Matter and March for Our Lives and awareness for climate change.
It is scary, but never let yourself be told that those in power are the sole determinant of the future. Never lose your right to democracy – the power you have to hold your leaders accountable, to speak in the face of injustice. Keep voting, keep engaged, keep working for the world you wish to see.
There is still art to make, stories to tell, and people to love. Hold your loved ones and keep your ideals close.
Do whatever gives you the most autonomy in an increasingly complicated world.
So, I’ll keep writing. I’ll keep typing up words and editing and erasing. I’ll keep posting reviews and talking to intriguing people and trying to make sense of all the things I can’t control.
I hope that you’ll do the same so that in four years, we might wake up to a future of greater possibility.