There are many wonderful seasons in this world  (Christmas season, Pumpkin Spice Season, Back-To-School Season), but there is nothing quite like election season. Who doesn’t love a few politically (and sometimes religiously) charged, wealthy, politicians bickering back and forth about what they promise they’ll bring to the country and why.

Candidate A is awful because “insert boring quote here” and they are clearly the better choice because “insert even more boring quote here.” Mix this in with plenty of emotions, a dash of rivalry, a speck of telemarketers and pollsters that definitely hate their job, just a smattering of history, a sprinkle of old scandals recently brought to light again, and a hint of exhaustion and by golly, you’ve got yourself an election season that’s sure to please.

All kidding aside, the election season is one that I personally hate. Almost as much as I hate doing precalc homework (sorry Hayden!). Scratch that. I definitely hate the election season more. Especially this season. For months, everywhere I turned it was “Donald Trump said this stupid thing” and “Hillary Clinton still has sketchy emails” and God only knows what was going on elsewhere in the world because the American media wasn’t covering any of it.    

Now that we’re out of the election season (finally!, amiright?), there have been a few repercussions that I’d like to focus on. I’d like to preface the next few paragraphs by saying there is more to this debate/situation/scenario than I will ever be able to form into understandable sentences in this article. These are a select few.

To every American out there, for Pete’s sake, it is one election. ONE. 1. Uno. This is one out of 56ish elections that the United States has had in her lengthy history. And guess what? We’re still alive. We’re still trucking along for better or for worse. For 240 years, we have had changing presidencies, numerous scandals, amazing victories, and tremendous losses, but we’re still here. Besides, the President doesn’t have all the power. Is Trump really going to build a wall? I don’t know, but I do know that without Congress’ help he won’t. We have a system of checks and balances for a reason.

If I may be cliche here for a second, the fact that we can vote is really a privilege in and of itself. Instead of whining about how well it did/didn’t go for you and your beliefs, maybe we should focus our energy on the fact that 783 million people don’t have access to clean water and nearly 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. That’s one third of the world for those of you wondering. And, on average, there are 288,820 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States. Sometimes we get so lost in what we’re upset about that we forget what we should be upset about.

But all that aside, there were some statements that I feel need to be addressed. I have heard the election called an “American Tragedy.” Honestly, 9/11 is an American Tragedy. Our increasing number of school shootings is an American Tragedy.  Our incarceration rates are an American Tragedy. This election is mere inconvenience. Along this same note, calling this election “unbearable” is ridiculous. Out of all the problems and tragedies in this world, I refuse to believe that an election result is “unbearable.”

As I learned from this year’s play “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”: “If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, you got a problem. Everything else is just inconvenience. Life is inconvenient.[…] A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same lump. We should learn to know the difference.”

Secondly, to all the people upset about racial/sexist/etc. things Donald Trump has said/will say, I can’t argue too much with what he has said. But realize that if you have a problem with other people saying these things to your children/friends, it’s not a president problem, but a people problem. Young kids especially will repeat what they hear, whether it be at home, at school, or on tv. Maybe we should learn to watch what we say about people before we say it. Just a thought.

Now if you’ve survived this long into the article, you’re probably ready for me to wrap up, and I couldn’t agree more. So all previous statements aside, here are some final words of advice from the one, the only, Abe Lincoln. “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”