Editor’s note: Vanderbilt Student Communications has elected to publish this story without the author’s full name to ensure her personal and professional protection.

When I committed to spending the fall of my senior year in DC, I legitimately believed that on November 8th I would be running down the National Mall, dancing like a mad person and celebrating the first female president of the United States.

Today, I so greatly wish that I could go back and warn that girl. Getting her hopes up was setting her up for the worst day that she would remember in her life thus far, a day that has essentially been a waking nightmare.

To the Trump supporters reading this letter, allow me to say that I respect you. I respect your voice, your vote, and your anger at the establishment and at American politics as we’ve known it. You are not wrong to voice your opinion, and should not be made to feel that way. I therefore hope you will respect my dissenting opinion.

I am a white female from Massachusetts — also known as Liberal, Inc. I truly believe that I have listened to the concerns of Republicans in this election, but what I am more concerned with now is how to survive the next four years.

As a female trying to move into a career field predominantly dominated by men, I have looked up to Hillary Clinton for as long as I can remember. As a woman, you are constantly doubted, patronized or marginalized almost daily — Secretary Clinton gave us hope, because she is a woman that dares to think herself the equal of the men in the room. She is the reason I know that fighting for what you know is right is the most noble and difficult thing you can do for your country.

This election hurts me to my very core just barely one day later.

I saw little girls on the street, walking to school with their worried parents, looking downright confused. Congressional staffers openly cried in the hallways, and my workday was basically spent staring at my computer screen, with no desire to look at the news.

As a woman, I am not scared. I am angry. I feel duped, honestly. I was raised for the past twenty-one years to believe that if I worked hard and treated people with respect, that I could achieve anything and receive that respect in return.

But this election, every day I watched CNN only to witness more “Lock her up!” chants and lewd language towards women than I ever imagined I could possibly see in a presidential election.

As a woman, you are constantly doubted, patronized or marginalized almost daily — Secretary Clinton gave us hope, because she is a woman that dares to think herself the equal of the men in the room.

I received a text from a high school friend, panicking about what she would do if gay marriage were overturned. The realization of the fear for her, and any other young person’s future, is something I will spend the rest of my life trying to prevent.

I am trying to figure out what to tell little girls who come the Capitol over the next month what the next four years will be like. I wonder what I will say to any daughters I may have, about how the country voted in a man who has clearly disrespected and even assaulted women — and then bragged about it, multiple times.

But I do not and will not give in to the idea that we are lost. That America is ruined. That we have ended life as we know it.

I understand the dissenting concerns that are out there — but I ask that you let the protests and the dissent happen. Healing isn’t completed overnight. And neither is democracy.

I hope that as the months go by, I will look back on this election with fondness. I cried out of pure joy, made lifelong friendships on the campaign trail, and even met Hillary herself.

I hope that all hope is not lost, because as my favorite quote goes, “The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself.”

This anger is real and raw, unlike anything we’ve ever known. But let’s not forget that America is an experiment, an ideal. We will continue to aspire to the democracy that we know that we can be.

In the meantime, listen, love and learn. And break some glass ceilings while you’re at it.

Jess M. is a senior in the College of Arts and Science.