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Like many people across Hawaii and the continental United States, I woke up on the morning following election night in utter disbelief at the political reality that is about to set in: Donald J. Trump, president-elect of the United States of America.

It is not just the idea of Trump being commander-in-chief of the United States that is frightening. It’s the thought that joining him along the way is a Republican-dominated Congress and a Supreme Court with a soon to be conservative majority. This is the first time in recent history that so much power and authority will be consolidated into a single party — that is what scares me.

So with all of that in mind, what is at stake? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already committed to repealing the Obamacare health insurance system under a new Trump administration. Will Trump also follow through on campaign promises to ban Muslims from entering the United States, renegotiate the terms of NAFTA, build a wall along the American-Mexican border, defund Planned Parenthood and do away with the EPA?

For me, as a 21-year-old soon-to-be college graduate who just voted in my first presidential election, the worst political nightmare has become a reality. I imagined myself in 20 years explaining to my children that my first vote for president helped to elect America’s first female commander-in-chief, breaking the last, hardest glass ceiling. Instead, I will be explaining to them that my first vote for president did not matter because America was still able to elect a man who has no political experience to arguably the most powerful office in the world.

On Jan. 20, 2017, Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, whether we like it or not. What do we do? Shall we all apply for asylum in other countries (I am sure Canada is a nice place to live)? Or should we attempt to gain an understanding of what actually happened?

First of all, I’m not one to run away from problems, so I will choose to stay here in Hawaii. My family has been here for over 100 generations, and I am not going anywhere. Secondly and more importantly, I believe we should attempt to gain an understanding of what happened on election night that led to Trump winning the the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Why Did 47 Percent Stay Home?

If you look at the results of the Electoral College, it is evident that Hillary Clinton clearly underperformed. Her path to victory heavily relied on reassembling the coalitions that helped elect President Obama in 2008 and 2012. She underperformed among numerous important populations compared to Obama in his win over Mitt Romney in 2012. Experts predicted that Clinton had several paths to winning the threshold of 270 electoral votes, but Trump trumped Clinton by picking up unexpected wins in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, states that were expected to go to the Democrats.

Looking at exit polls, the lack of voter engagement (for a variety of reasons) played a huge part in the results of the election. Early data found that 46.6 percent of registered voters did not vote. Therein, we might ask ourselves the question: Why did 46.6 percent or 102.2 million people decide to abstain from the 2016 elections?

For many people who chose not to vote, it was simple: They could not make a decision on which candidate was the lesser of two evils.

Clinton was the candidate who many thought represented the party establishment that many had hoped to change in 2016. She has been a political figure who has maintained power, authority and a place in the limelight in the United States for decades. However, her campaign faced heavy controversy regarding her email scandal that resulted in various hearings and investigations by different federal agencies, Congress and the FBI.

Her road to the general election was also met with a strong primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders, who himself sparked a political revolution of his own in the United States.

Clinton underperformed among numerous important populations compared to Obama in his win over Mitt Romney in 2012.

Then there was Trump, the candidate who represented the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans. A self-proclaimed billionaire businessman, and TV celebrity, he ran a campaign that was controversial from the beginning, filled with sexual misconduct allegations, racial attacks against Mexicans and Muslims, a record number of false statements and heavy criticism on his lack of political experience in public office.

Yet, he was able to overcome a Republican primary that initially fielded 16 candidates, the largest presidential field in American history.

But many felt that neither candidate deserved to sit in the Oval Office, so many decided to sit out the election, which might not have been the wisest choice.

Many have argued that if you did not want to vote for either Trump or Clinton, you could have voted for a third party candidate. Sure, you could have chosen Gary Johnson, Jill Stein or Evan McMullin, but the political reality is that these candidates had no path to victory.

I believe that if you are running as a candidate, you are running to win. People may have believed in the platform that these candidates campaigned on, but again, they never had a path to victory. Third-party candidates took 4 percent of the popular vote. Not much, but that 4 percent could have changed the outcome.

Let us look at how critical Florida voted. Trump took 49 percent of the popular vote with 4,591,156 to Clinton’s 48 percent with 4,462,338 votes. That’s a difference of 128,818 votes. Gary Johnson took two percent of the popular vote with 204,818 votes. Jill Stein got 63,658 votes.Without the third party, Clinton possibly takes Florida and those 29 electoral votes. The same situation occurred in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two states that without third party candidates could have possibly been won by Clinton.

So what was it then? Are third-party candidates the people to blame? Was it Clinton’s inability to overcome the distrust and suspicion that many fringe voters had for her? Was it the alleged allegations that the DNC had maneuvered to oust Sanders in favor of a more political Clinton? Or was Trump just the better candidate?

Will We Survive A Trump Presidency?

We could argue for days on what led to the outcome of the election, but the fact of the matter is that Trump is the president-elect.

Now back to my original question, what do we do? Do we sit back and let fear, anger and divisiveness consume us?

Of course not! We have to keep moving forward. We have to continue to fight for the ideals that we believe in. We need to continue to engage our communities in civic affairs. More importantly, we have to continue to inspire people of all ages to become civically engaged in all aspects of government, whether it is on the local, state, federal or international level. Our voices do matter, but we have figure out how best to utilize it.

People are saying that with Trump as commander-in-chief, the world is sure to come to an end. No, a Trump presidency is not the end of the world, but it is a good wake-up call.

It calls on us to use this time (and this presidency) as an opportunity to rally our communities together, to educate our people on issues that matter, but more importantly, to invite them to join us in fighting the good fight.

Will we be able to survive a Trump presidency?

With the inspiring words of President Barack Obama: Yes, we can!