Dear America,

I have never been one for hope, so I should not have been surprised, but oh God I was. Donald Trump, a representation of nearly everything I am against, had been elected President of the United States. My hands were shaking. My heart was pounding. I hoped I had read it wrong.

I wanted to fall asleep and wake up to find that none of this was real. So I did. Sleep, that is. But when I woke back up everything was still real. As I got ready to face the difficult day ahead of me, I did not leave the dark state of despair. My hands were still shaking, partly because of the anger and partly because of the shock. Soon, this pit of anger turned to a dark cloud sadness.

As I sat down at breakfast, hot tears welled in my eyes as I saw my mum’s face and noticed the flush in her cheeks she gets after she cries. The mere sight of this shattered my heart. I thought of everyone who would be affected by this.

First, I thought of people I knew, people close to me. I thought of my family, my friends and then, somehow, I thought of people I had never even met. I do not know why or how, but their cries echoed in my head. Their pain became my pain.

I thought of my parents, before I even knew them: their hard work, which granted me everything I have today; their struggles, in you, a country they hardly knew, trying to make things work for themselves. I thought of how difficult it must have been for them to live in a country that was so full of opportunities that they deserved, yet so bigoted. America, you have come so far, only now to being going back.  

My body became a mosaic of emotions, all bitter.  Bits of sadness, bits of fear, bits of shock and bits of unfathomable anger, all because we have a new leader.

Sincerely,

A hopeless American

Introduction to Journalism students at Masters wrote letters to America, sharing their reactions to Donald Trump’s victory in this week’s presidential election. Tower will be posting these reactions over the next few days as members of the community try to understand the significance of this major shift in our political landscape.