At this point, I’m choosing to believe that 2016 is actually the darkest timeline.

Either that, or we are the timeline (SPOILERS) where Rick was arrested by the Galactic Federation. In the real timeline, David Bowie is singing at Hillary Clinton’s victory party.

The alternatives are too depressing.

Today was rough for Americans.

My first election ever, I voted for Obama. He was not the first president I traveled under,and the change was immediate. His name was like a high credit score- doors opened, strangers smiled. For a little while, Americans abroad were small time celebrities.

My second presidential election… well, I was out knocking on doors. I’ve mentioned it before on this blog, but that was my first job out of college. Registering new voters, talking to undecided voters, organizing grassroots teams. It was an incredible, stressful, transforming experience. One that I can’t really do justice in just a few paragraphs.

But even when it got ugly in 2008 and in 2012, you could feel the boundaries. McCain would not let a woman at his rally refer to Obama as a foreign Muslim. Romney caught hell for his “47%” comments. Today was something different entirely. It’s really going to be a new era, good and bad.

Today was surreal. One 6th grade teacher told her class to behave, because I had enough stress from the election already. Then I asked them how they would vote, if they could. 29 said for Hillary, 1 for Trump (but he put his hand down when he realized we didn’t mean the trump card game) Many teachers were quite kind and were happy to chat about it, but I could feel some of them giving me a wide berth near the end of the school day as the results were called.

It’s a strange time to be abroad.