In chemistry, when things get heated, reactions become more severe. The election this past year has definitely been heated.

From emails to tweets, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lead bruising and controversial campaigns. In fact, the candidates in the election of 2016 had the highest unfavorability ratings of any election in the history of the US. Such contrast and anger between the campaigns made for extreme responses to the news the country received at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Day two of the post election season, and of course, some people are happy with the results of the election – others, not so much, and some in between. 7th grader JJ Schwartz described his views about President-Elect Trump as “Mixed emotions…” He and other interviewed students said that while they agree with some of Trump’s policies (i.e. tighter borders, tax cuts), they do not approve of his rhetoric, going on to say that they agreed with Clinton that the gender wage gap needs to be closed, and that discrimination against minorities is beyond wrong.

Another student, Ava Lacoseglio, an 8th grader, felt that many of the “racist” things Donald Trump has said were completely blown up in the news, while Clinton’s wrong-doings have been more hidden. As she put it “You know, I ask people, ‘Name one racist thing he’s said,’ and they can’t think of anything.”

Ava also expressed that another positive aspect of Trump as president is that he doesn’t have a personal agenda, and he “isn’t anyone’s puppet.” The thing Ava stressed the most was that Trump will change things up in DC. She thinks he will protest for what he believes is wrong. This was one of the leading components in Trump’s campaign because many feel that the current way things are being run isn’t working for them.

Comparatively, the students that had been against Trump from the beginning had, by far, the most striking reactions to the election. Many said that they were, in no uncertain terms, scared by the prospect of President Trump. One eighth grader, Sydney Greenberg recounted, “I cried; I’m not ashamed to admit that.”

Kristina Chaney, a sixth grader here at Bedford said, “I felt like I’d shrunk an inch shorter,” when she found out that Trump would be president. She then went on to illustrate, “I lost my breath, and I felt numb.” After the initial realization, 8th grader Nate Burke said he felt “severely disappointed that our country has come to this,” referring to the discriminatory rhetoric of Trump’s campaign. He also conveyed that he fears that Trump will gain too much power, creating, as Nate defined, a “disastrous” next couple of years.

The divide of Trump supporters and Trump contesters doesn’t only rest within the walls of Bedford Middle School- far from it. People all over the country are celebrating and protesting the new President-Elect Trump. People are divided right now, but we must wonder, what will it be like in 2020?