I, like so many others, had a rough night last night. The election results were not what I expected and I experienced shock, anger, and fear. I have never felt so overwhelmed by emotion. It’s took me until late this morning to truly wrap my mind around everything. I’ll be honest, I still don’t understand all the emotions I was experiencing, but I do know that one was fear. Fear for Americans who are not white, male, straight, and Christian. The thought of leaving the country crossed my mind as a legitimate possibility. I am Hispanic, my wife is black, and my kids are a wonderful mix of the two. I feared for my family. My faith in the American political process was so shattered that I immediately began envisioning Nazi Germany in America. That may be hyperbole, but it feels like the beginning.

I was also heartbroken. I love this country. There is no doubt in my mind that The United States is the greatest country in the world, but last night, I doubted that for the first time in my 31 years of life. How could the greatest country in the world elect this to our highest office? I’ve always felt America still had more to do, there’s still racism, sexism, and xenophobia. But we were making progress, the conversations were being had. Now, we’ve elected someone who represents everything we say we’re against? This is not the America I love.

It wasn’t until this morning when I was shaken out of my shock that I began to start thinking clearly. There’s a lot of hate right now. There’s a lot of resentment on both sides. This makes us weak. We have to love each other. Whether we’re white, black or any color in between. Whether we’re Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Wiccan, atheist, or whatever you brings you spiritual fulfillment. Gay, straight or questioning. Cis-gender or transgender. Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter. We are all Americans. We are all humans.

There are plenty of Republicans for whom Trump is also the nightmare scenario it is for Democrats. They feel Trump and his ilk have hijacked their beloved party and turned into a sick abomination of what it once was. I sympathize with them. Some voted for Hillary, others third party, but either way, they see Trump for what he is and understand the danger he poses.

Now, what’s done is done. Trump is our next President. All we can now do is look towards the future, and the future is not as bleak as this setback would make it seem. We got complacent and allowed the dark underbelly of America to reach our highest office. These four years will be a struggle, but our democracy was designed specifically for this. No President has all the power. He can’t do anything without 535 checks from the the congress and 9 from the Supreme Court. The First Amendment to the Constitution also puts 319 million roadblocks between this President elect and his unconstitutional campaign promises becoming the law of the land. There is a path forward.

We have to mobilize. We have to continue to expose Trump for what he is. We have to fight him with protests to any backwards and dangerous policy he tries to implement. Above all else, we must turnout in 2020 and push him out in such numbers that we show the world that America has not lost it’s way, we just got distracted. We are still bright beacon of democracy and freedom.

My wife and I finally bought Season Tickets for the LA Rams.

It’s been a long road to get here.

My wife an I have been hoping the Rams moved back to L.A. since we were in High School. Admittedly, I never saw them, or even knew who they were, the last time they were in L.A., my family wasn’t into sports when I was growing up, unless it was soccer, and that never much interested me. My first exposure to the Horns was fairly recent, Super Bowl XXXVI, I had gone to a Super Bowl Party, and you know, you have to pick a side. The side I chose was based on two factors:

1. The Rams were favored to win thanks to The Greatest Show on Turf.
2. The Girl I liked, and my future wife, was rooting for that team. (Yes, my wife got me into Football)

I had no clue what the hell was going on, up until this point, I’d only watched Football in passing and had never watched a High School Football game. But I had fun. I enjoyed watching that game. I couldn’t tell a Tackle from a Pass, and half the time, I didn’t know who was on Offense or Defense, but I still Enjoyed the experience.

Fast forward thirteen years, and my wife and I attended our first live game. It was the San Diego Chargers against our then St. Louis Rams. You want to talk about an experience, Man. I was hoarse after the game, I had started getting a migraine half-way through (it was hot and I have an issue with drinking water, but hey, lesson learned), but man, I didn’t care, it was great. The Fans, even though they were—gulp—Charger Fans. But to experience that game live, literally FEELING the excitement as the cheers echoed and vibrated through the stands. Wow. We’ve always talked about wanting the rams to come back to LA, have them close to us, but more so after we went to that game.

There’d been rumors for years that they’d be coming back, but it was always next season, next season.

Well, next season finally arrived. January this year, when the NFL gave the go ahead for them to move back, they wasted no time in taking deposits for season tickets. That was a painful process, first, my wife and I weren’t expecting it, I don’t know why, but the day and time caught us off guard. Secondly, Ticketmaster buckled under the pressure a few times, but we kept trying, because we were getting our season tickets. When we finally got in and were able to put down our deposit, 37 minutes had passed. An eternity. But the excitement set in, it was happening, it was real, we had taken our fist step to buying those season tickets.

Then started the wait. The Long. Torturous. Wait. No information was ever made available about when the tickets would start going on sale, just “later in the spring”. Alright Apple.

But we waited, me a little more patiently than my wife (if you haven’t caught on, she’s a bigger Football Fan than me). Last month, the news that sales would start and would be done in waves was announced. The first wave got their emails telling them to get ready. The Rams started the @LARamsServices Twitter account to answer questions and help with problems.

Then the bad news. That first wave covered only the first two minutes. We weren’t ever going to get tickets. Panic began to set in; What if there weren’t any seats left? The second wave came, the first 10 minutes. The third wave, the first 15–20 minutes. That was progress, but still we were convinced that the only season seats we were getting were at a Buffalo Wild Wings, and only of we got there early, because those fill up fast too.

It was around this time that my wife and I started getting really worried, and really frustrated. The lack of information about what the inventory of seats looked like and the fact that there were season tickets already on sale at StubHub caused me to go a little twitter rant. Luckily, the @LARamsServices Twitter account was awesome. They DM’d my wife and I and even offered to call to talk to us to discuss our concerns. They were great.

Then it happened, we got our email, wave four was our wave, June 9 at 3 PM was our window. But still, we couldn’t see what was available, so we had no idea what we’d be getting; Behind a goal post? Outside in the parking lot? But once again, @LARamsServices to the rescue (have I mentioned this guy and gal duo are great?) they offered to have us call them a an hour or so prior to our window opening so they could tell us what was available. When our window finally opened, we knew where we were buying our tickets.

We put down our money and made one of the most satisfying purchases of our lives. I’m excited, like really excited. I’ve been craving that feeling again, the rumbling of the stadium, the cheers. The seats may not be in the section we originally wanted, and they may be a little higher up than we had hoped, but we’ll be there, full rams gear, screaming our lungs out to support our team with the rest our #Ramily. Horns Up.