My Election Experience

    The days following November 3rd time was at a standstill. I kept refreshing the election map, over and over, hoping that there would be some important update. It felt like I checked every 15 minutes, regardless if I was in class or work. In fact, I even used it as an incentive, allowing myself to check after I completed a math problem or did 15 minutes of studying. Saturday morning came the long-awaited announcement: Joe Biden had won the presidential election. After seeing Michigan and Wisconsin go blue, I knew in all likelihood that the race was over, but some nagging part of me kept saying "what if," leaving me in a state of perpetual anxiety.

    This election has been hard because I know people on both sides of the aisles, who feel very passionate about their position. Both sides seem so convinced that they are entirely correct that they are unwilling to have a civilized conversation and understand someone else's point of view. The reality is that both candidates have redeeming qualities despite their many flaws, and for me it came down to picking the lesser of two evils, which I decided was Joe Biden. Response to COVID was at the top of my list of issues and I feel like Biden, as a moderate, has a much better shot at uniting America that Trump, who has only increased the levels of partisanship over the past four years.

    I do have to come clean and admit that I have spent an excessive amount of time scrolling through the Fox News comments section on Instagram, especially as it became more apparent that Trump was losing. I've got to give some people props for their creativity, managing to grasp at the thinnest of straws and blow it into a widely-believed conspiracy.