Let’s talk about the election. I’ll do my best to avoid being like a Facebook post. Although I’m obviously writing my opinion, I don’t want to chase anybody away with my bias.

Wednesday at school was a pretty somber day. Kids were crying in the halls and the greater part of the student population was distressed.

In all but one of my classes, we had, at the very least, a mention and short talk about the result. Regardless of political affiliation, it was a really unexpected outcome.

I was shocked, and spent all of Tuesday night glued to the TV, anxiously picking at my nails as the results came out and the Midwest cemented Trump’s victory. I’ll make my bias clear: I was upset.

I’m somebody who, one day, wants a career on the global stage through work in the State Department or some multinational organization. In other words, a career entirely reliant on America staying a global leader and on all nations working together.

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Trump was, for the most part, poorly perceived on the international stage and by our allies.

I remember, probably in 2006 or so, while on a vacation in Italy I noticed that nearly every Italian was walking around with a reusable shopping bag sporting a male statues’ unmentionables plastered on each side, and “G.W. Bush” printed in big white lettering.

It was hilarious to 7-year-old me because it had genitalia on a bag. The United States was deemed as a global laughing stock, a viewpoint that’s sure to return in the next four years.

A friend I know from Pakistan, which is in a political mess of its own, sent me a snapchat of her looking upset with the text “You had one job, America.” Ouch. But hey, at least Putin and Trump get along!

International politics aside, I’m not too worried about Trump. He’s already done the worst he can as soon-to-be-president, saying inflammatory and offensive comments.

Besides that, the president is limited in his power; he’s Commander-in-Chief, but I don’t see any upcoming problems with Trump there.

He can repeal Obama’s old executive orders like Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an executive order allowing illegal child immigrants to stay in the United States in order to let them get an education and give them a chance, give them some sort of stability in their tumultuous lives of poverty, but I digress.

The real reason I’m worried about President-elect Trump is because of his new administration, and the people he’s choosing to surround himself with.

There’s Mike Pence. It’s expected that Vice President-elect Pence will play a big role in the Trump presidency merely based on the fact that Trump lacks political experience and will need Pence to help. Pence has already been named the leader of the transition efforts, a title rarely given to the VP.

If anybody recalls the crisis in Indiana a couple years ago, in 2012 the Governor of Indiana pushed forth a backwards law to legalize the discrimination of the LGBTQ+ in Indiana. That was Pence.

Also, as part of his agenda in 2000, Pence not only publically supported the use of conversion therapy, a widely, medically disproven and discredited tactic to convert LGBTQ+ individuals into straight, ‘normal’ people, but said that the government should be diverting HIV/AIDS funding to do so.

There’s Newt Gingrich, a man who is almost certainly going to be granted some sort of position in Trump’s administration, although it’s undecided whether or not he’ll serve in the cabinet or as more of an unofficial advisor. He was a key politician in the movement towards conservatism during the 90’s when he served as Speaker of the House.

When Speaker of the House, Gingrich tried to cut off all funding to the Congressional Black Caucus. More recently, in 2008, he spoke of the ‘gay and secular fascism’ present in America.

The last example I’ll pull out is Myron Ebell, the man selected to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and who also coincidentally doesn’t believe in global climate change. He called Pope Francis’s 2015 research-based statement on climate change “scientifically ill informed, economically illiterate, intellectually incoherent and morally obtuse.”

So what to do? I don’t think the right thing to do is protest the election. Regardless of opinions on the Electoral College, Trump won fair and square. And honestly, he hasn’t done anything wrong yet. He was remarkably cordial in meeting President Obama.

The right thing to do is entirely dependent, of course, on personal political beliefs, and anybody who supports Trump’s administration has every right to do so.

Meanwhile, I hope to emulate the fiery student protesters who have made America great in the past, the civil rights protesters and the like. In college, political activism will be my right and most likely, my passion.

If my future is condemned in favor of a deregulated coal industry, I’ll go ahead and write letters and send emails and contact every representative. I’ll stand and protest with any vulnerable communities if they’re marginalized during the Trump administration.

Most importantly, I’ll get out and vote in the already upcoming 2018 election.