When I signed up to study in the United States for my year abroad, I was fully aware that the presence of a presidential election would drastically affect my experience. The way I saw it, the second Election Day results came out, something would change. What took me by surprise, however, was how the upcoming election would so strongly impact my experience at a largely liberal school like UC Berkeley. 

Nothing could have prepared me for the immediate shift that would be felt the second the race was called. In the lounge where I was watching the results, some people were crying, others were shaking their heads or calling their loved ones, and this sentiment carried on the following day, as I went to class the following day. What first struck me as I walked to my 10 am was the silence on campus. Sproul Plaza was no longer filled with tables urging students to register or vote early, the woman who had stood under Sather Gate with voter registration deadlines for the last few weeks was gone, and it felt as though everything had gone quiet. Some of my professors canceled classes outright, others used our time together to talk about people’s feelings surrounding the election. The main word used during these conversations was fear, as my female classmates expressed their anxieties not only for their lives but for those of women in more conservative states. Along with this came a genuine regret at the rise of conservative values in California, with citizens voting to maintain prison labor and indentured servitude, along with increasing the number of felony charges. Everyone had their own theories on why and how Trump managed to win, though general consensus found that no one was surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. 

While one of my professors ended class early, she allowed us to remain in the classroom to work if we so chose, which felt extremely emblematic of how this election is being experienced for millions of people. Although we were given the space to cope with the results, at the end of the day, life goes on and assignments remain. As we all eventually headed our separate ways, people talked about what they planned on doing for the rest of the week. Some of them talked about wanting to focus on school or midterms, others wanting to drink or get high in order to unwind. In my case, a friend of mine was baking in my flat, the same friend who had been sobbing to me a few hours before about how scared she was for the future. 

Experiencing such a big election from within the US has forced me to reexamine the perspective from which I view American politics and its consequences. While most of the people I know in Europe were responding with either jokes or anger, something that I have done myself very often when observing America from abroad, it felt surreal to be reading such posts when everyone around me was experiencing such sadness and disappointment. When portraying American politics, the European side of the Internet often pokes fun at the absurdity of the political system, of its candidates, or of campaign strategies. As the election is turned into a spectacle, it becomes entertainment for those unaffected. And yet, for millions, the election had very real consequences. It has played such an overpowering role in shaping 2024, and from one moment to the next, it was done and hope was lost.