Got to Let Go

Well, that’s another shambles again, isn’t it? The US Presidential Elections in 2020.

Flashback to 2016. I was grading assignments at my office in the UNT GAB, oblivious to what was happening in the US Presidential Elections. Or maybe I was hiding? I don’t remember anything clearly except that I remember feeling crushed walking back home after seeing that America had voted for Donald Trump.

All the months leading up to the 2016 elections, I had read about how Hillary Clinton was absolutely going to be the next US president. I had accepted that without question. For international students in the US, life is always hard, regardless of who’s in power. There’s a struggle to get jobs, there’s a struggle for very limited H1B visas after you get a job; it is definitely not easy.

So, the hope is that the US gets a president who understands that immigrants do not threaten the livelihood of US citizens; they can exist and benefit together.

Leading up to this Presidential Election, I was promised Joe Biden was a certain winner. He was so far ahead in the opinion polls that his lead was unassailable, apparently. I avoided reading these because I knew how 2016 had turned out. My girlfriend, my best friend, everyone I love (most tend to skew blue) assured me that Trump was not getting a second term in power. I told them I would believe them only after the results were out.

And yes, Biden might still win. It’s still unclear at the time of writing. But I know for certain is that I will not believe opinion polls until the actual election results are out.

The fact that this is such a closer race seems unbelievable to me. But I have learned one thing from this.

I need to learn to divest my emotions from things that I don’t have a lot of control over. It’s not good for my health to stress about the bad direction the entire world is going in. And it is going in an irredeemably bad direction. I have always been a pessimist to a point where I actively depress people by my opinions. And while I don’t think that will ever change, I try to do my best to keep the people around me happy.

If anyone wants to talk to me about anything, the comments for this blog are open as are my DMs on Instagram or Facebook. I promise I will listen to what you have to say, so pour your heart out.