Everything pretty and nice: 2016

November was a fun month because...

...after a couple of months I finally hung out with two different friend groups of mine! The first group I met in high school and the second group of friends I met during my internship two years ago. And I also hung out with another friend of mine who graduated college during the summer!

...I read A LOT of books. I read a couple of the Harry Potter books in the beginning of November and then I took a short break from them. After Donald Trump was elected as a president I started reading again (I was reading the sixth book 'The half-blood prince'). I have to say that the book was an accurate description of how I was feeling.

*SPOILER ALERT AHEAD*

Yes, I am talking about the ending where Dumbledore dies. That is the moment when you realize that the most difficult time is ahead of us. And that is the exact case with Donald Trump I think. He, just like Voldemort, has a vicious and dangerous following base and they agree with everything he says. They might even act on Donald's behalf, even if he doesn't directly say anything.

I have also been reading a couple of books from Sugar Jamison (Dangerous curves ahead, Have yourself a curvy little Christmas and Thrown for a curve)! She wrote a 'Perfect fit' series and I have fallen in love with it. Her writing style is very captivating and she writes from the male and female perspective! If you love 'chicklits' then I would recommend this series to you.

... I feel like I have dreamt a lot in November. Unfortunately I have forgotten most of it but I do remember parts of my dream. I met Aziz Ansari in my dream and I freaked out. I decided to give him a hug in that moment, a bone 'crunching' hug might I add *winks vigorously*, and for some weird reason I wouldn't/couldn't let him go. And he looked SO uncomfortable, like "Get this chick off of me. Help me, anyone?!" When I woke up I was laughing my ass of.

Oh, I also dreamt that I was at a wedding and some people were giving out ice cream. When they arrived at my table they didn't give me any ice cream and I felt left out. But they quickly realized that I didn't get any ice cream and they gave me some. Yeah... I have no idea what that's about...

...I went to Melanie Martinez' concert! It was so much fun, you can watch a short clip on my Instagram! I am going to write a blog post about it. I know, I also have to write a blog post about: The Neighbourhood and Years&Years, but I have a small amount of time available right now, because of my thesis.

... I decided to watch 'Parks and recreation'. Hmmmm, now I think about it, that might explain my dream about Aziz Ansari.

The last but not least...

... I baked a Biscoff cake (speculoos cake), and it was delicious!

Thanks for reading guys! I hope you enjoyed my blog post and I will see you in the next couple of weeks!

9:09 AM
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What would president Obama do?

A piece of my mind

November eighth, 2016.

It was around 2:30 am.

Before I went to bed I refreshed my news page to check on the results. "Good" I thought, Clinton was ahead of Trump. My mind became less clouded, but it did make me think what would happen if Trump did become president, ~~I was curious, can you blame me?~~ Social cohesion would disappear, no gun control, no benefits for students and of course we would go back to the 50's/60's (minority wise, the LGBT-community included of course). It made more sense to me too not vote for Trump.

In my honest opinion, I was hoping that Bernie Sanders would have been eligible as a presidential candidate. He would have upped the minimum wage, he would be in favour of students and minority groups. Basically the opposite of Trump. It is what it is, right?

Instead Clinton was chosen to run the presidential campaign. Her political views differed from Trump, but were close to Bernie Sanders' views. Which made me root for her.

On to the next day

I woke up at around 11:00 am. I immediately checked my phone and I went to the news webpage and saw that Trump was elected as president. I refreshed the page like two or three times and yeah... There he was again. His face was plastered over the webpage. I could not believe this... I went to different news webpages to confirm, that he really won the election.

"The United States of America is f!@#ed".

That, my friends, was my immediate response.

180

In the last eight years, when Barack Obama was the president, he build a community. An unity (as in 'United'). From what I saw throughout the media, he tried to include and inspire every single citizen. He made same sex marriage legal for crying out loud (in my opinion, still too late, but at least it happened). Now with Trump as president all those changes will fade into nothingness. The Trump government will repel most changes president Obama has made: healthcare, same sex marriages, his 'wall' etc. He is going to do a full 180.

You can already see that people are very vocal about the outcome of the election. As a president you should be able to talk to the population. I have not seen him do that. I have not seen him address the current situation in the United States. Now he had been elected, a lot of his followers are showing their true colours. There are a lot of people who think that now Trump is the president, they can be as rude as they want to be to people of color/minority groups and/- or people with different religions/sexual preferences. If I was the president and those things happened under my watch, I would distance myself from those people real quick. But he did not do that, at least not that I am aware of...

Oh and might I add, that I find the voting system in America strange... Clinton received more votes, but trump won because of the swing states. That seems strange to me ... The American voting system came up very quickly during high school and I have also gotten bits of information from Scandal (I know it is only a tv -show, but it helps seeing it actually played out). I still find it very complicated.

Trump in the media

During his campaign he said a lot of despicable things. That video where he made the comment: 'Grab them by the pussy'. Shows a lack of respect towards woman. That was not the only comment he made about woman, he portrayed the 'beautiful' woman as lust objects in the media. And I can not phantom that people tried to justify his words by saying it was 'locker room talk'. Read this and you will be even more horrified.

Oh and when he first introduced 'The wall', I thought he was joking. But he was/ is serious about that.

I. CAN'T. EVEN.

It just is not realistic to me. The next president will probably (hopefully) tear it down or put a stop to his project.

I also remember his comments about veterans. When I first read about it I was under the impression that he said that the veterans are weak. I tried to understand why a guy who wants to "Make America great again" would say that. I mean the Americans are patriotic, it did not make sense to me that a presidential candidate would say that. I decided to watch the video and I realized it was actually not what he tried to say. I do think that he was trying to say that mental health problems are bigger than we are and he wants to give the veterans proper care. I do believe that he could work a bit on his deliverance though.

And he has said many, many, many more offensive things... If I would write everything down, then I could probably write a proper report on him being a douche.

Protests

As I have mentioned before, there have been protests. People have been very vocal about their opinion on Trump. And that is your right. But I do have to say that a protest is something peaceful. You basically have to get your point across calmly and not get swept away by your emotions. However hard that might be. And that made me think of the Obama's. The Obama's handled everything graciously and they have never consorted to violence. How would president Obama do that? What would president Obama do? Just ask yourself that.

I do feel like you should be realistic. Trump has won the presidential campaign.There might be a small chance that he will be impeached, but there also might be a small chance that he won't be impeached. You should not put all your hopes on him being impeached, you should prepare yourself if he won't be. Life will become harder for people who are not white, for people from the LGBTQ- community, immigrants, basically anyone who is not Christian and a male etc. What are you going to do then? Those are the questions going through my mind right now. If that were me, I would not feel safe in my country. I would honestly be terrified to leave my house without company.

That would be my tip; if you don't feel safe in broad daylight, ask people to walk you home or if you do not want to do that just keep in contact via text messages. I always ask my friends to text me when they have arrived home. That way I know that nothing has happened along the way. You can also strike up a deal like that with your friends.If the government is not going to look out for us then we will have to look out for each other.

During these dire times, do not be afraid to talk to friends, family members, school counselors etc. You have already seen that a lot of people are with you. Talking about your problems really help! Just remember that.

I also wanted to say that this is my opinion on the elections and the candidates. If you disagree with me, that's okay. But I will ask you to be respectful in your feedback.

To end this post on a much happier note. I wanted to tell you guys that I am going to Melanie Martinez' concert tonight!

xo Laxmi