For me, Bernie Sanders was the voice of millennials.
He was like that high school history teacher you loved that made politics interesting and would lend you lunch money if he saw you sitting in the cafeteria with your head down. I trusted him. Everything he said was music to my ears and made me feel like my wants and needs not only mattered, but were worthy of being fulfilled. I cast my vote for him in the primaries even though the media had already announced that Hillary had won.
When Hillary got the nomination, I knew I would give her my vote because she was my default option. Initially, I thought she was only progressive with issues (such as gay marriage) when it was most convenient for her. But I don’t feel that way anymore.
See, Hillary would be that other history teacher that you thought you wouldn’t like because of the circulating rumors you overheard from the upperclassmen, filled with talk about secret emails and anti-feminist views of her staying with her cheating husband. She grew on me. Now she’s the teacher that brings me baked goods because she never wants to see me with my head down at lunch. In fact, I wish I was more passionate and less complacent about her this summer because I would have attended the DNC in Philadelphia, a mere 45-minutes away from my home.
Voting for Hillary is no longer like being forced to go to a party you’d really rather skip.
What made me really analyze this election and take a solid stance about Hillary was something that happened a few Fridays ago. My screenwriting teacher pointed out to me how Bernie’s platform made America believe in the effectiveness of politics and how Hillary has adapted her platform to include similar policies.
This was the first thing that solidified my belief in Hillary.
The second came from those Humans of New York Instagram posts that humanized her path to how she got where she is today. For the first time, I saw Hillary as a person I could very well have in my life, not a politician. I would voluntarily go to Hillary’s house for Thanksgiving. Actually, I would invite her to my house for Thanksgiving. I know she’d be able to handle Uncle Donald’s stares, stifle laughs at his toupee and refute his racist opinions while keeping her composure. We would then take up his offer to take a short drive to Atlantic City and sass his (failed) business ventures the entire ride there. It would be glorious.
When November 8th comes, I will cast my vote for Hillary. And no, it’s not because she is the lesser of two evils, it’s because she is a soldier for causes I care about: minimum wage/job development, women’s reproductive rights and veteran affairs.
Hillary Clinton is one of the “women our parents warned us against” and in eight years if she’s not too busy, I’d be happy to have her over to my house that I bought thanks to my gender-equal pay.