It is the day after the USA’s 2024 presidential election day. Half the nation is feeling nothing but a loss of our unity. I’m in total disbelief that a repeat of election day 2016 has occurred 8 years later. It feels as if the nation despises the idea that highly qualified woman would lead the country, and would rather go with a convicted felon, racist, rapist, bigot, and incoherent cis-white man instead. This time in 2024 there’s no excuses of foreign manipulation of our news on our social media platforms, or misinformation. This is really what the nation wanted and brought it about themselves. The disgruntled single-hetero-cis-gendered men desires an easy life partner and the return to familial values, where the women is there to serve them, not developing herself. A great way to return to this ideal is abolishing abortion rights to try to solve the issue of declining birthrates. We’re going backwards in time. This is what America wants, this is what we are going to get. It’s okay, all major western civilizations fall once they gotten too big and great, look at the Roman empire, the great British empire, the Spanish empire. All things fall eventually. This is just part of a natural flow of time.

The life in the United States has become unsustainable as we reach end-stage capitalism, companies and corporations are undercutting the people who create value working for them, to obtain short term profits. It becomes a game of making as much money out of this business as possible while trampling on as many people as needed, then bailing out with the cash. This is causing people to not have stable jobs anymore, salaries that don’t rise enough to compensate for living expenses. Inflation makes it impossible to rent or buy a home, run a small business, and just eat. Not even taking into account health care expenses. I recently went to the hospital for a routine imaging procedure, and a small biopsy. It would have cost me $13k without health insurance. I still had to pay about 2-3k while my health insurance covers the rest. I’m sure most Americans don’t have that kind of money laying around. Companies continue to encourage spending to simulate the economy while the people are 1 paycheck away from poverty. I remember watching an anime, Rose of Versailles, taking place right before the French Revolution, one of the characters, Andre says he can’t believe that people can’t see a doctor when they’re sick, since they can’t afford it. Its a timely scene, that people in the US are in the same situation as people who were starving in 1780s Paris, France.

I already had plans to start my journey, living in Germany at the end of this year, not because of the results of the 2024 election. It’s been my dream to live abroad in a new country for an extended amount of time, to immerse myself in the culture, and learn a new language fluently and culture. The time has aligned to be able to do this now. After this election, leaving California makes me feel wistful, as its been my home for my entire life. From the north’s towering Redwoods to the Golden gate to the burgeoning streets of vehicles that line the state from the snowy mountain tops of the Sierra Nevadas though the dry desert terrain to the soft sandy beaches that reaches the warm Pacific Ocean in the south. You can experience the 4 seasons within a 2 hour drive, and visit national parks with unparalleled beauty. The melting pot of cultures that make up my golden state brought about global culinary experiences that I’m so grateful for. My entire identity has been tied to this state, being proud to be living in a country and state that has the most progressive thinking, the most amount of rights for women, and not living in fear of retribution and hate because of who I am, what I look like, and my beliefs. Other countries don’t have this luxury, but with this election it will change. My heart aches that I’m not staying and continuing the fight for our rights and democracy. Since 2016’s elections, I’ve fought for a while and I’m tired. Leaving like this makes me feel like I’m running and not staying and resolving the issues, but I’m ready for a new chapter.

I’ll miss you California. I hope when I return, that we all have been brought out of the dark ages