No, You're Not Waking From A Nightmare

So to start off this blog post, a little story that kind of sets the stage.  Yesterday I was in Bemidji in the morning for a last minute On The River hosting gig and pulled an all-nighter to make sure I made it out there on time, as I thought it would be good for the show to be new since it was being preempted that night for election coverage.  I found myself taking my time getting home yesterday, even stopping at a beautiful park in Lake George to conk out for an hour so that I could finish the drive home and stopping by Walmart in Detroit Lakes to stretch my legs and avoid the getting out of work rush.  It was around 4:30 when I got back to Fargo and I decided to go to the Fargodome last minute, which was the voting location for NDSU and the surrounding area and cast my vote.  I guess it wasn't too late to register after all, and I felt a strong obligation to myself suddenly to make sure Donald Trump didn't get into the White House.

Finally making it into the dorm around 6:30 or so I watched some fun TV to bide the time until the actual results started rolling in around 9:00 or so.  Conking out and waking up again around that time I quickly turned on ABC, the network from the Big 4 that I trust the most on providing honest and accurate information, and saw that Hillary had somewhat of a lead, but not too much.  Thinking that things would go the predictable route of Clinton winning because not too many people wanted Trump in office (I wanted neither of the two), I started watching casually, as with election results you kind of have to do that.  It wasn't long before I conked back out again, as I obviously was in dire need of sleep at this point.

I woke up once between 1100 and 100 and Trump had a lead at that point but hadn't struck 270 yet.  I tried to stay up but found myself conking out again, remembering when Mitt Romney had that small lead in the 2012 Election and eventually lost it, so again, I figured we'd be ok.

Another side story before I continue.  In 2008 I was just an excited 11 year old that really wanted President Obama to win because I felt that John McCain was also not a good fit for this country. Similar to this year, I conked out on my basement couch, and woke up to Obama's victory speech, which if I remember right was somewhere around 11:00 or Midnight, earlier than most years actually.

This was not the case this morning, as I arose from my deep sleep around 4:30am to see "TRUMP WINS PRESIDENCY" in large letters across the bottom of my screen, and I about gagged to be honest.  I was in absolute shock, but given the shocking manner of this Election cycle to begin with, I wasn't too surprised that this had happened.  I mean, it's been the year of electric fences around yard signs because they keep getting stolen and the KKK endorsing a candidate.  There have been a lot of things we've never seen before this year, culminating in this.

As I enter into the day today, I'm not too sure of what it will be like.  There's reports of the stock market crashing across the globe and money being de-valued as well as a prediction for a bad stock outlook today here in the US.  I'm sure that somewhere on Facebook and Twitter also there's a giant mess of people fighting with and swearing at each other, and thankfully I haven't seen much of that with my friends yet.

But there's one assumption I can make it, and that's that the Election is over, and now we can heal friendships and business relationships that were damaged over the past eighteen months and go back to being normal people who just watch what the President does.  Also, from Trump's victory speech, I think we'll be better off than I originally thought, and I can put a hold on my plan to move to the United Kingdom for just a little while.  He's going to be a "wait and see" type of guy with this job.

However, that doesn't mean I support him in the least bit.  Trump's treatment of women and minority groups plus how he conducts himself in general is a huge turn-off for me.  I understand that some of you reading this might prefer things the way's he's proposing them, but I don't in the least bit.  We as a country need to be more welcoming and open to the changing racial spectrum.  I'm not saying you have to like it, but the police brutality has gotten too crazy, and the absolutely awful attitude against people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds could really use a change.  Hopefully this might be a turning point for that and we just don't know yet.  I did catch a glimmer of it in Trump's speech, but that might have been for just rich and poor citizens after all.

And I'll say it again, I'm overjoyed that I'm not waking up to President Clinton either.  That would have been equally as bad as what we're seeing now.  I'm sorry, but she was not to be trusted at all.

So, this morning, I leave you with a peaceful song, and ask for you to go out into the world and be friendly despite how last night's results left you.  For just one day, let's have politics not be the main topic of discussion, and that's what I plan on doing now that this blog post is up.  Let's all go back to our normal lives.  And remember, God made us special and is watching over us.

What are your thoughts on Donald Trump being elected President?  Do you see a good four years ahead or are you bolting down the lock on your door and planning to move to Canada? Drop a comment below. 

And also, let's be glad that we're not waking up to President Ted Cruz either ;)