On Wednesday, Nov. 9, students’ backpacks were stuffed with books, half-finished homework and flags, later to be waved in the faces of anyone who still chose to come to school that day.

Hallways filled up with students between classes, where loud chants of “build the wall” pierced classrooms and spread throughout the building.

Students ran up to one another, shaking each other by the shoulders– “Trump is President!”

The aftermath of the 2016 election brought disunity, polarization, and an overt lack of empathy towards our peers. With another Election Day behind us, we at The Tower urge our audience and the student body as a whole to prevent the same from happening again.

It would be incredibly easy to resign ourselves to the idea that the President of the United States represents the will of the entire American population. Yet this past year more than ever, we have witnessed firsthand how this is not always the case, and the unrest that will forever define 2020 resulted from a divergence between our nation’s people and its leader.

With this in mind, no matter the results of November 3, we at The Tower encourage you to fully embrace your autonomy and look beyond the presidency to seek out opportunities to create change at the local level. It would be disingenuous to advise you all to be civil in the face of the election’s results, with the outcome meaning more for what should be indisputable human rights than any other year, so we advise you all to be collaborative.

We must be collaborative to prevent ourselves from transforming into usernames arguing rather than real individuals debating (because, at some point, you will see their faces). We must be collaborative to not see this election as an ultimatum that condemns the nation to one singular fate. We must be collaborative in order to see ourselves as vessels of change, rather than stagnant, combative groups warring with one another.

Anyone can point out an issue– it takes exactly two clicks to share an infographic, news article, or petition to one’s social media page. But simply making information accessible should not satisfy but rather encourage you to devise solutions for the issues you see in your country– solutions that tackle the very reason why such information is not common knowledge.

Your ability to make an impact on the communities you belong to and care about does not end on election night. It does not end merely because one candidate’s name is drawn over the other– in fact, it should be reignited. If your goals and missions for your country align with the president’s, you must still work to bring the issues that matter to you to the forefront of the nation’s mind. If the president fails to align with your vision of the nation, you must still engage in active resistance, as many of us have during the months leading up to Election Day.

And, after months of heightened political activism and social consciousness begin to decline, we at The Tower hope that you all recognize your own role in determining the fabric of our nation.

Your vote is your voice. Your choices are your character. Your fight is your nation’s future.