For many people, including myself, this year has been one of the craziest in term of politics. While politics are always a hot topic, the 2016 election and the results of it were clearly the biggest occasion. After the election, there was a surge of tweets, Instagram posts and messages on other social media platforms saying the same thing: “America is doomed.” I will admit, I participated in this, but I now realize my actions were wrong.

Although the President of the U.S. is an influential person, America is not doomed because our democracy isn’t based on who our leader is. Instead, it’s based on the diversity of opinions and needs of our citizens. The majority of this country has the ability to voice their opinion and advocate for actions they want taken.

Advocating for actual change is important because it lets the leaders of America know what the people want and why. Of course it is still OK to post humorous content; we don’t have to be serious all of the time. However, if messages are always funny or have no substance to them, they aren’t changing anything. A simple tweet reading, “America is doomed” isn’t going to change the actions of our leadership or the way they take those actions.

It can be disappointing when the leader of a country isn’t someone you wanted, but that doesn’t mean the country is doomed. It just means there is more opportunity to advocate for the actions you want taken. President-elect Donald Trump may not represent everybody, but regardless of political opinions, he should be given a chance to represent and serve America to the best of his ability. After all, the citizens of the U.S. are still his first priority.

Overall, the U.S. is a great country. I will always be proud to be a citizen regardless of who the leader is because I know that one person doesn’t define the country. The citizens as a whole define our country because the fundamentals of a democracy will always be in favor of the people, not one individual. The citizens of this country may argue about the direction of America, but at the end of the day, we’re all Americans and that is the most important factor to our country.