The polls were wrong. The news organizations were wrong. So many people were wrong.

After an intense election season with a surprise ending, America is freaking out.

The level of disrespect for one another that has been brought out throughout this election, especially on Election Day is disheartening

Not everyone who voted for Donald Trump is a racist, sexist psychopath, and not everyone who voted for Hillary Clinton is a radical, feminist liberal.

Everyone has their reasons for voting the way they did. There’s no need to insult and belittle people for making a choice that is theirs to make. Learn to be respectful even if you disagree.

No matter how sad you are or how hurt your feelings are, Trump will be the president of the United States in January 2017.

I understand being a little down when the candidate you were rooting for didn’t win. I would feel upset if Clinton won, but I certainly wouldn’t be protesting, burning the flag, and threatening to assassinate her like some of her supporters are doing right now to Trump.

According to the Washington Post, because of the violence and vandalism after Trump won the election, the police classified the occurrence as a riot not a protest. Words were screamed, things were burned, windows were smashed, and people were injured.

I also wouldn’t need to skip tests to recuperate like some students at Yale evidently did.  According to the New York Post, an economics professor gave the students the option to skip their test the day after the election if they needed time to cope with Trump’s victory.

Unfortunately, there are no decisions that will make every person happy. You can’t always get what you want, and allowing students to mope about the results isn’t going to help anything.

Social media is playing a huge role in the negative reactions from this election. People think they can post whatever they want, and it won’t affect anyone. No matter what side you were on, just remember that when you are typing these hateful names and rude comments, you are classifying half of the country by what you are saying.

I see Trump’s kids getting a lot of hate on social media. His children never did anything to deserve rude comments and threats from people over the Internet, especially his 10-year old son Barron. No matter what you think of him, his children and his wife should be left out of it.

Social media is also playing a role in the large amount of false information circulating through news feeds everywhere about both candidates. Actually read the article before you assume it’s reliable because of the enticing title and do some fact checking before you share something on Facebook. It doesn’t take a whole lot of knowledge to create a blog where someone can post anything they want. Don’t believe everything you see, and know what you’re sharing.

Many Americans, including numerous celebrities, had threatened to leave America if Trump was elected. A lot of those same working-class citizens and celebrities have since withdrawn their threats since his win. Maybe they changed their mind because they realized that you can’t just pack your bags and walk into Canada. Becoming a citizen of any new country can take years and can be extremely expensive. Before anyone puts themselves through that, I think they should give the new president-elect a chance to prove himself.

No matter what your feelings on him are, Trump might actually have some good ideas up his sleeve. To name an example, Time Magazine and Washington Post have both reported on Trump’s suggestion for six weeks of paid maternity leave. Many other countries have had paid leave for parents for years. Hopefully America will be taking a step in the right direction to join them.

Current President Barack Obama and Trump met at the White House, Obama is hopeful for the next four years, and Trump had only positive things to say about their meeting.

“Some of his gifts that obviously allowed him to execute one of the biggest political upsets in history, those are ones that hopefully he will put to good use on behalf of all the American people,” Obama told NBC News.

Obama wants to see Trump succeed, and so should all Americans. Hoping for our future president’s failure is bizarre. Why not hope that Trump does great things and turns America around? He is going to be the president for all of us, not just the half who voted for him. If you are wishing for his failure, you are wishing for your own failure. I certainly hope he proves to be more than what the media portrayed of him as over the past couple of years.

I promise you, no matter how many times you tweet #notmypresident, Donald Trump will still be your president. It is time to move on with grace and hope for the best.

Emily Gibbens is a staff writer for  The Dakota Student. She can be reached at  [email protected]