so. election day. election day results.

i had my only class canceled today by my professor, who tried very hard (unsuccessfully) to hide the impact that the results had on him. i woke up to frantic texts from friends and family alike, talking about losing rights, losing citizenship, losing the lives they worked so hard to create in the “country where dreams come true.” i cried to the thought of what this could mean for EVERYONE in the united states, whether they know the severe consequences of their actions or not.

how can people say, “hands off our kids!” calling for a national abortion ban, and then proceed to put hands on already existing kids, coaxing them to act in certain ways to please adults in our toxic society? forcing them to perform gendered, and even sexual roles to an uncomfortable extent? disciplining them to hide away characteristics that are seen as “abnormal” and “weird”, when in reality they are just characteristics of a condition that the parent is afraid to confront due to stigmatized views?

how can people say, “gen z is lazy!” calling for limited work reformations, and then proceed to create awful work environments that uphold misogynist, homophobic, and ableist ideals? environments where people are unable to take off due to medical conditions, disabilities, even just mental health days? environments that let sexism foster? all just to pay their workers less than minimum wage in a society that does not support minimum wage!

and how are we supposed to just CONTINUE with our lives anyways, when we live in a society like this? when, now that the polls have been finalized, we are confirmed to be living in a society underneath a president who will do his best to make life a living hell for so many of us? how are we supposed to go on when this affects so many of us in different ways, with the justification of it simply being a “political event”? “you voted and your party didn’t win – boohoo, that’s how politics work!” no jim, that’s not how politics work, because politics should not have so many human lives dependent on it.

because a racist, transphobic, white FELON was placed back into office, so many waves and movements and amendments we have successfully passed have the risk of being placed back milestones. now, i won’t say that our work will amount to nothing, because our achievements are still achievements. every small win should be celebrated, and celebrated well. but how are we as a society ever going to be able to move forward when there are only backwards mindsets in power? when there is no education on how to have empathy, on how to uproot these dangerous, harmful stereotypes?

our class is about the education of concepts considered taboo to our society. unruly bodies is so incredibly important, because it allows us to take a step outside of our tunnel vision we have currently placed on the working, resting, ever-changing body. we radically tear apart the cardboard that blocks our eyes from a world that is more diverse, provides more justice, gives more accommodations. this class has provided so many different perspectives, yet other people don’t care and it frustrates me. people outside of our class don’t care enough to learn and educate themselves about issues going on in the world, issues going on within our community. they only see through the stupid cardboard tunnel vision on what was deeply embedded in them at a young age: working your body until your hands gnarl and you drop dead, performing the associated gender of the sex you were assigned at birth, behaving as an abled modest person of society who doesn’t make prolonged eye contact (god forbid you creep someone out!), forcing yourself to put the productive collective over the exhausted individual… the list of inane expectations goes on, and on, and on.

this tunnel vision is directly present right now. today. as us marginalized communities fear for what could happen next, what will be taken away from us next with us having no say. because let’s face it: we just have to keep going, even when we are fighting every day for justice. the world just keeps going. i wish i had something more to say, but i am just so angry.

our fucking lives are at stake and my university still expects me to take my statistics midterm on tuesday.

our fucking lives are at stake and yet i’m here folding my laundry while dinner is in the microwave.

my LIFE, our LIVES, have become POLITICS. and yet the world keeps spinning round.

so now the only option is to fight back until we make it stop.