As I walked into the kindergarten class at Garfield Elementary on Monday afternoon to tutor a kindergartener, I overheard the teacher telling the students to respect others’ opinions and that “it is okay to agree to disagree.” As she said this, I began to apply it to my own life. Many people often get caught up in their own opinions and they forget to see the opinions of others.

Just a few weeks ago, the Cubs were vying to be the world champions. As a Cubs fan, it always hurt me when people said comments like, “I cannot believe you are actually a Cubs fan” or “don’t you get tired of seeing the Cubs choke every day?” I would fight for my Cubs but at the end of the day, these people were not budging. No matter how hard the Cubs had proven themselves this past season, people still would not give them the respect they earned.

This issue also came up in the recent election. No matter what happens, one presidential nominee will always lose. There is no way two people can be the president of the United States. In this election, however, many people took this as an opportunity to lash out all over social media and physically attack one another. In Portland, Oregon, an anti-Trump protest turned into a riot. Reports have stated that anywhere from 70-112 people were arrested. Shockingly, more than half of these people that were arrested did not vote or were not registered to vote. If you do not vote, then you will need to just accept the elections. Even in Iowa City, protesters shut down I-80. However, what will protesting do? No matter how hard you protest, the election is over. The country has decided. Donald Trump will be our president.

Half the country is happy, half the country is sad, but either way we are all still Americans. We need to respect each others’ opinions, even if they are different from our own. Respect your peer that has a different political view than you, because at this point, there is nothing that you can do to change the fact that he will be the president of the United States and the Cubs won the World Series. As Mrs. Kimball said, “It is okay to agree to disagree.” Sometimes, being the bigger person and respecting others’ opinions will get you even further in life.

I am in no way saying that you should not stick up for yourself and just listen to what everyone tells you; keep firm in your opinion, but respect others’ opinions and ideas as well. Let people know that you don’t have the same opinion as them, but you will still listen to them and form opinions from their inputs. “It is okay to agree to disagree.”