Dear Mr. Trump,

Congratulations on becoming President-elect. While you were never my first choice, I am not angry with you for winning. 

I hope with all my heart that the media made you out to be ten times worse than you actually are. I hope that you are actually a kind-spirited man with our great nation’s best interests at heart. Most of all, I hope that you can dissolve the hate that you have created towards people of other races and religions. 

As a young woman about to leave the safety of my parent’s home indefinitely, I fear people like you who degrade us so casually. However, I hope that all your degrading comments against women were nothing but “locker room talk”, and that you will treat our country’s women with the same respect that you would bestow upon your wife. As the daughter of two wonderful, hardworking parents who immigrated to this country to give myself and my siblings a better life, I fear people like you who put us in boxes labeled “rapist” or “drug dealers”. However, I hope that your discriminations against religious denominations and races other than your own are nothing but uneducated generalizations. 

I know many of your supporters. I know that they are kind, intelligent, wonderful, contributing members of society. I know that they are hard workers, dedicated parents, and law-abiding citizens. I am not angry with them for voting for you; each and every one of them has an issue that is near and dear to their heart, whether it be health insurance or a family member in the military. While not every supporter is quite as lovely, that is not the point. The point is that it is now your duty to stop the riots and the hateful chants. 

Our nation rests in your hands; you may have never been the most qualified, but the people have spoken, and you are our choice. Please remember the health of our women and their right to choose. Please remember the diversity that has made this country so great.  Lastly, please do well by us and keep our best interests in mind.

Sincerely, 

Sophia Sanchez