As I sit down to write this the day after election day, I am in shock. I have no words to say, yet so many thoughts that demand to be shared. For one, I, along with so many other people, thought that this election would be too close to call until at least the end of this week. But no, this presidential race was far more decisive that I could have imagined. By early Wednesday morning the Associated Press had already called the race in favor of Donald Trump, and countless major news sources have followed suit. Part of me thinks that I was too focused on other things to see the indications that Trump would win, but another part of me thinks that nobody expected this to be the outcome.

Watching the live results coming in yesterday I was reminded of what it was like to wait for both the 2016 and 2020 results, and how those felt without actually having cast a vote myself. This time around though, after performing my civic duty to the United States, everything feels so much more real. In the previous two elections I was just a kid who thought he was passionate about politics in this country, but since then I have been exposed to far more diversity and I know very real people who are going to be affected in very real ways. I have to sit knowing that as a straight white man, chances are I will go about my life for the next four years for the most part unaffected by the policy changes that the President-Elect has promised to make during his term. Nonetheless, I hurt. I hurt for the people I know and love that will directly feel the effects of this election in the coming months, who may end up living day to day not knowing what tomorrow holds for them and their family.

I do think that it is safe to say that the next four years could very well determine the rest of my generation’s lives. Economic policies that prioritize multinational corporations over the welfare of human beings, immigration policies that prioritize white nationalism over living as a global citizen, reproductive policies that strip women of the right to make choices about their bodies, and so many more will shape the very foundation of life moving forward. I am in disbelief that we have come to a point where the majority of this country believes that we are superior to all other nations, and that by cutting ourselves off economically and culturally from the rest of the world we are preserving a concept of liberty and freedom that in reality does not exist. Just as it is impossible for one person to live completely autonomously without collaborating with others, I think it is impossible for the United States to thrive in the ways that have been predicted by creating these harsh directional changes.

What is done is done, I highly doubt that there will be mass calls to overturn the results of this election if I’m being frank. Moving forward I can only hope that people’s fundamental humanity will become a bigger source for cultural unity, a unity that transcends the radicalized political climate of today in order to connect us with one another. In a time where Christian nationalism is so prevalent, I think that it is time to reevaluate the role that religious beliefs have in United States politics. Something I have come to terms with in my own life journey being raised in a Mennonite context and now feeling such a disconnect with Christianity as a whole is that I simply want to be remembered as someone who lived like Jesus. Fighting for people’s human rights and giving them the dignity that they deserve is the least I can do when the most powerful nation in the world does not think the same.