I never really considered having to leave the US. I figured I'd raise my family here and grow old. Since Trump's election, I have increasingly felt like we may move outside the country to provide our daughter with the life we hope for her because those opportunities, freedoms, and safeties won't be available here. I ponder what the signs are for when to get out. The other thing I remember worrying about very soon after the election is that we'd given our daughter a very ethnic name. As a mixed-ethnicity child, I don't know exactly how she reads to others now or in the future, but her name marks her as "other." I became worried that the country might be heading in a direction where that was not safe. And I started worrying more for my husband and her safety in general, and as the far right-wing has worked to erode more and more rights for women and minorities, I have started worrying for my own safety as it has to do with access to reproductive health.

There has been some added stress. I went to some protests early on and as a SAHM, my daughter was young enough I felt safe wearing her to some of the protests. As she got bigger that felt less safe and also the constant churn of news meant I retreated back to just focusing on our family for awhile. Although the events of the last 7 months have kind of eclipsed the 4 years. I feel pretty burnt out from the last 7 months of crises and incredibly anxious about what the election will bring.

I don't know what I'd want them to know about, but I do think that they will look back at the BLM movement, at Russian interference in US elections/politics, at the SARS-CoV2 pandemic as major events to study. I don't know if Trump will stand out as a president that everyone knows for being horrible or a particular turning point, or if he'll sort of fade into the background of not-great presidents (if he loses the upcoming election that is). I'm sure we'll be judged for what we didn't do to combat climate change. I hope that some of these things will be the turning point towards better policies for a social support system, for universal health care, for climate policies, and for equality.

In 2016 I felt so deeply moved thinking that my daughter would see a woman elected president. (No matter Hilary Clinton's faults or her connection to Bill, since when have we ever had a perfect male president?) While we don't have that option of a female president in this election, having Kamala Harris -- a woman, South Asian, black -- as the VP during some of my daughter's formative years would be amazing. I also hope that the democrats will win a huge landslide and that the country will start moving left. I hope that right-wing hate groups and militias are dismantled and that people start to at least feel embarrassed about being bigots etc. again as we move towards hopefully eradicating those beliefs. I hope that my reproductive rights and other rights as a woman are protected. I hope that health care access is preserved and expanded. And I hope that the country can turn around it's coronavirus response and have a federally-organized, efficient vaccine rollout. It would be nice not to have my daughter come home from school and tell me that it's not good to be close to people. She would love to go on a beach vacation again some day.