In yesterday’s post, I talked about how life is incredibly unfair.
I know just yesterday we said a lot is unfair. And I don’t wanna compare Hillary not being President to any other global or national or local atrocities. Just today, it’s the one I wanna focus on.
Hillary Clinton gave her whole life to us. She has been in politics forever. She has fought a giant uphill battle, including having men shout at her before she took her entrance exam for law school, saying she should leave and leave spaces for them. After all, “if she gets in and they don’t, they’ll be drafted.”
Imagine all this pressure, and all these voices, and all of this, when you already have pressure because you’re trying to get into law school!
That was one teeny tiny piece of what she had to deal with. She was pressured to take her husband’s last name for the optics of politics, even though she didn’t want to.
If I think it’s hard to navigate the world as young woman in 2017, imagine what it was like when Hillary was my age. I don’t really want to.
And she pushed and pushed and pushed and persevered. She’s had a nice career. She has broken some glass ceilings, and especially because she was up against Donald Turmp (someone so terrible who has no idea what he’s doing), she should’ve been the next President of the United States.
It seemed like the biggest comeback story of all time after the Obama upset in the primary so many years ago. You know how yesterday I was talking about how I used to think that everything always just kinda worked out in the end? This was one of the things that was supposed to show me that! That she got smarter and stronger in 8 years and she’d win.
It was glorious to see her campaign.
…
And then it was over.
And now she is not the President. And I really can’t see a scenario in which she gets to run again. And it is heartbreaking. It shatters my heart – imagine what it does to hers.
When you look up life not being fair in the dictionary, this is one of the giant glaring examples.
And it hurts so deeply.
But what is she doing? She’s writing a book. She’s hiking. She’s figuring out how to become more re-involved with her charity. (We all thought she’d need to step away from it as President, but alas….) She’s backing a new media (website? outlet? I don’t reaaaaally know what verrit is…) She’s given speeches. She is not quitting. She is not hiding. She’s living her full life and trying to find out if she can’t have her dream, how else can she help?
Because while I definitely get the sense (super, super much so) that she wanted to be President, I also get the sense that the giant overarching goal above that is to be a great public servant. And she’s figuring out how.
I thought her 2016 campaign was going to be the ultimate “anything is possible” story – and while I will still always say that anything is possible, and will preeeeeeeetty much believe it in my heart… it might’ve more been the “when something’s impossible, find what is, and make it amazing, and make it yours” story. I dunno.
Anyway, I love Hillary. What a role model. (Looking forward to her book!)