“Are you okay?”
The morning after Election Day, I woke up to several texts from close friends and family asking me if I was okay, how I was doing and to text them if I needed anything. In that moment, I needed that. I was feeling the kind of emptiness that comes with having your future ripped away from you, from realizing that the last chance for some semblance of sanity is gone for at least the next four years.
My heart has been in my stomach for days now, but I can somehow still breathe. Even though it feels like I’m at my breaking point, an old Navy Seals adage reminds me that my last straw is only 40% of my total capacity. It’s impossible to know what horrors await us under president-elect Trump. As hard as it is to hear, we’ll soon have a convicted felon occupying the most powerful office in the world, and the people who voted for him celebrate that and wear shirts with his mugshot on them. If that’s not dystopia, I don’t know what is.
At the same time, I remember being 13 and living in India, wanting so badly to be a red-blooded American again. My parents have lived in this country for over 30 years, and they moved here for me. They wanted me to live the American Dream: a term that when uttered recently, often evokes a viscerally disgusted response.
The American Dream has countless connotations — several of which are predicated on capitalism and greed — but to me, it couldn’t be more simple. It’s Victoria Justice’s iconic “Made in America” music video; its hope and a better life.
The United States of America is the country I was born in, and I can spend my life trying to run away from that fact or I can suck it up and realize that I bleed red, white and blue — and so do you. I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready or willing to give up on America.
On Wednesday morning, I woke up thinking it was all over, but messages from everyone I care about helped that feeling subside. With that, I want to bring your attention to Kamala Harris’ concession speech.
“And we will continue to wage this fight … by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve,” Harris said.
Despite the deep loss many of us are feeling, we should take Harris’ words to heart and continue to move forward. We should continue to fight for democracy, with strength and dignity behind our actions.
