“I believe in the death penalty.”

“I hate white men.”

“I am pro-deportation.”

“I believe we should repeal the second amendment.”

“I oppose the Black Lives Matter movement and government welfare.”

“Here we go, a crazy liberal.”

“Oh my god, one of those conservatives.”

The death penalty should be used but I am no barbarian. This is an extreme punishment reserved for the most inhumane of criminals and only after the appeals process has been exhausted and rehabilitation has been deemed ineffective.

I hate white men but I am not sexist. I hate white men who use their privileged status to degrade women. People should be more focused on creating unity and fighting for true equality instead of putting each other down. Women should not have to fear the powerful white man.

I support deportation, but no, I do not hate immigrants. It should be required if a large criminal offence has been committed. But more importantly, we need to reform the immigration process to end the need for dangerous journeys across the border illegally.

The second amendment should be repealed only to be replaced by something safer. There have been far too many shootings where assailants had untreated mental illness and were unfit to carry a gun but somehow were allowed to possess one. As a nation, we need to fight for more extensive background checks and mental health screenings to prevent these attacks.

I will not venture to say that our country is not racist, but the violence and hatred that has been sprouted by the Black Lives Matter movement has created only a more divisive racial climate. We need to come together and start conversations about injustice and inequity, and utilize our governmental processes to make actionable change without violence.

There are stories behind every belief.

These caricatures that we paint of people are not far from the truth. We have become acclimated to an environment of acceptance where every person holds similar beliefs, but high school is not representative of the world in which we are about to enter.

55% of Americans support the death penalty for murder.

25,000 Americans identify with white supremacist groups.

1 in 5 support the deportation of young immigrants in the United States.

There are 5 million members of the NRA nationwide.

There are 5,000 to 8,000 members of the KKK worldwide.

21% of people strongly oppose the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Only 6 out of every 1,000 perpetrators of sexual assault end up in prison.

24% of Americans consider themselves Republican.

29% of Americans consider themselves Democrat.

45% of Americans consider themselves Independent.

And we will have to navigate the world with all of them.

You will meet people who are: sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic.

You will meet members of: the NRA, ANTIFA, white supremacist groups, the Alt Right.

You will meet people who are: anti-abortion, anti-immigration; people who are against everything you stand for and believe.

How would you react if you met your polar opposite? If the person standing in front of you wanted everything that you fear the most? If they believed that the path toward making America great was juxtaposed to all that you believe?

What would you say? Would you raise your voice and tear them apart?

What would you do? Would you raise your fists in defense of their affront?

Where do we go from here?

We are crippled by our isolation, never having to confront the fact that our positions have oppositions. Without the vital exposure to those who contradict us. We preach acceptance, but even in the few instances when we are faced with natural discourse in high school, we become all but hostile, alienating this difference instead of embracing it.

We say we respect everyone, but when words come to action we fall painfully short. We are all fighting for the same America. We share this great nation. How can we ever expect it to reach its full potential if we are not even willing to speak to the opposition?

Neither one of us are all knowing. None of us are wholly correct.

It is these conversations, these dialogues that create the most impactful change. They are uncomfortable, even terrifying, but they are absolutely necessary--a vital step in the evolution of the status quo, a required part of operating in a social world, and we have yet to experience it.

At the end of senior year, we will be forced out of our bubble into an unforgiving world. A world in which we will not be cradled or protected, in which we will have to logically defend our beliefs, but we are not entirely ill prepared.

We are unique in our ability to understand what it means to be accepting. We have spent our years in high school learning the power of unity. We have been taught the skills to operate in a world of opposition--now all that is left is to apply them.

In a society more polarized than we have ever been faced with, it is our responsibility to take the perspective we have built here and infuse it into post-high school life.

Impress the world with our curiosity, infect the world with solidarity, impact the world with love.

As we go on to  encounter: the opinionated, the passionate, the diverse, the human. These are the people you will meet in the real world.

Your opposition.

And when you meet them, what will you say?