By Shumaya Islam
A younger Donald Trump parties with The Clintons during happier times.
It was just another chilly morning that day as I walked down Pleasant Ave, with my coat loosely worn, one hand stuffed inside my pocket, and the other firmly holding the strap of my backpack.
As I walked, you could hear students ranting among their friends. Some were whispering, but others seemed to have no care in the world. It was the same kind of chatter that you always hear, interspersed with snickering and complaints, yet some of them seemed just plain uninterested. But the only thing I really heard was the small steps I took as my worn-out shoes stared back at me.
By the time you are reading this, the whole world has long been well-aware that on Tuesday November 8th 2016, it was Election Day in the United States of America. Later that night, while most of America was anxiously worrying their brains out, I was fiercely doing my AP chemistry assignment. What I found amusing was that I also had an AP U.S. exam the next day. But before you jump to any conclusion, don’t worry, I did keep up with the polls. The next morning, on Wednesday November 9th, I was informed that Donald J. Trump was announced as the 45th President-elect of the United States.
Frankly, in the beginning I had no initial emotion upon hearing this news. To me, it felt like any typical morning: waking up, spending more time than I expected in the bathroom, getting dressed and leaving the house in a hectic mood. But what I will say is that on that morning, I experienced a unique feeling.
Did you ever have an emotion so new and unexpected, that you simply pushed it to the farthest part of your mind? That was what I did. A feeling mixed with resentment and discontent was placed in the back of mind. Now that I am writing this, I have figured out the key factor in all this: I was feeling hopeless without even realizing it.
For the past year, Mr. Trump’s face has been on the front page of almost every newspaper I know. From his infamous tweets from Twitter, to his on-and off announcements and the late night television hosts mocking his latest rant, it seemed like a never ending cycle of Trumpmania.
Frankly, through the middle of this whole election, I simply ignored any news from him, or anything even relating to him. But, after he was announced as our commander in chief, I realized that this was the man I now have to look up to as he makes the most crucial decisions ever for the next four years. That’s when the feeling of resentment took over my body, because I realized that this is actually happening, and it is the reality that I must face now.
However, it was not until Thursday night that I had the chance to really understand this whole event. I had an opportunity to hear the opinions and thoughts of students around the city during an after-school event I attend every Thursday. The program I attend for SAT prep turned into a circle of random strangers sharing their individual stories, filled with very raw emotions.
Later that night, I was disappointed to hear that nearly half of America did not vote! But in the end, I’m angry at those people who think this is just a comedy show. I hold anger towards those who mock the issue of deportation, or use it to make bickering “jokes” about a person’s race, religion, and ethnicity. But this is real and we have to realize it.
As a female and a Muslim Bengali-American, my disappointment stays with the fact that this country’s leadership is still in the hands of a man. Just once, to see a woman for the first time in history leading her husband, children, and the rest of the American people, was the ideal result I had stored in my mind. This election seemed more like a reality TV show, than anything having to do with serious political standards.
This election simply demonstrated that the majority of Americans still secretly prefer selecting a dominant white man as our commander in chief. You see, I’m from two different places on earth that are separated by almost nine thousand miles. My first home is the land of the free and the home of the brave; while my second home is in a country that is hidden among coconut trees and the thick humid air that you can almost taste. That country, where almost half of the population manages to live every day on the equivalent of two U.S. dollars, is currently led by a female leader. So I wonder how it is still possible that the United States still cannot elect a female president?
It seems that my kind of America will always be–even if only in the slightest way– different than anyone else’s kind. My kind of America does not want a commander in chief who mocks military leaders, who jokes about “bombing everything” up, or who disrespectfully rates the mothers of this world from head to toe. And my kind of America does not see an applauding, approving crowd behind a leader like that.
With that said, I respect all opinions in this decision, because one group or gender dominating the other one is not what this is about. This election gave Americans the freedom to vote, to express their voice, and that is what I believe is really crucial.